Ultimate Melee
by Aeschines
Summary: When the Hulk mysteriously breaks out of the Triskelion and shows up in front of the Xavier Institute demanding to see one of the students, hostility is raised between the X-Men and the Ultimates, leading to a struggle between the two teams. (COMPLETE)
1. Chapter 1

(Note: For the Ultimates, this takes place after Issue #13, after Ultimate War and Six, and before Ultimate Nightmare. For the Ultimate X-Men, it takes place after "Blockbuster."

**ULTIMATE MELEE  
CHAPTER 1**

Bobby Drake woke that morning with a piercing headache.

He looked over at a nearby alarm clock, which kept flashing "12:00" over and over again. Looking outside his window, he could tell it was around the time of sunrise.

With pain still thriving inside of his head, Bobby absent-mindedly rolled over and fell out of his bed.

"Ow!" he yelled out.

"What is it?" a half-awoken kid from a nearby bed asked.

"I think it was this dream I had," Bobby replied. "It was so…disturbing."

"Told you that you shouldn't have watched that movie," the other boy said. "When they mean 'suitable for ages 18 and up' they really mean that."

"Shut up," Bobby said. "It wasn't anything like that. Anyway, do you know what time it is?"

"Around six o'clock," the kid said, looking down at his watch. "The time that I usually enjoy sleeping." The kid turned away from Bobby's sight and went to sleep.

Bobby stood up and started walking to the door, clutching his head. "This isn't a normal headache," he said to himself. "And it most definitely wasn't a normal ….…" Professor Xavier's voice rang in Bobby's head.

The concept of thought-speak still startled Bobby from time to time. The fact that people like Xavier & Jean Grey could read his mind made him feel insecure, even though they promised that they wouldn't snoop around. Afraid that the professor was aware that he was having these thoughts, he refused to think about it any further and started walking towards the nearest bathroom. He would go to the professor's office, but first he had a detour to make.

He made it to the men's room expecting it to be empty, but instead, found Logan in there brushing his teeth.

"I recommend mouthwash, Logan," Bobby said. "Brushing your teeth's a good habit to get into, but not even Crest can abolish your bad breath, man."

Logan spit out all the toothpaste inside of his mouth and looked up at Bobby with a threatening expression on his face. "You wanna try that again, kid?"

"Good morning," Bobby said.

"That's more like it," Logan said. "But I don't think it is."

"What makes you say that?" Bobby asked walking towards the mirror Logan was facing.

"For starters, kid, you sleep in like crazy. You never wake up this early in the morning."

"Had a bad dream. And now the professor's called me into his office."

"Yeah, that's the other reason," Logan said. "The professor probably thinks you can lend a hand. Storm and Cyclops are probably already having trouble with it."

"Trouble with what?"

"You couldn't hear the noise coming from outside?"

"No…what's going on?"

"You know that big green monster that attacked Manhattan 'bout a year ago?"

"Yeah. The Hulk. What about him?"

"Yeah…he's right outside the mansion. And he looks pretty pissed off."

* * *

"5….4….3….," Charles Xavier counted down in his head. "..2….1."

At that moment, the professor saw Bobby Drake suddenly open the door into his office and come charging in, followed by Logan.

"Professor, what the hell is going on?!" Bobby exclaimed. "The Hulk is right outside the mansion!"

"I am aware of that, Bobby," Professor Xavier said. "And all I can tell you right now is that I only know as much as you do. I do not know the Hulk's motivation to be here, nor how he escaped from the Triskelion."

"Well, what are we doing about this?! That thing's going to trash the school!" And you-"Bobby turned to Logan. "What are you doing inside?! If you knew about this, why aren't you outside helping Storm and Cyclops?!"

"Bobby, calm down!" the professor said loudly.

When everyone was quiet, he continued: "Bobby, we don't appear to be in any physical danger. The Hulk isn't attacking us."

"But you said he's right-"

"True, he is right outside the mansion, but he's causing no damage."

"Then what's he doing?"

"Yelling at us," Logan said. "He looks pretty pissed off."

"Bobby, why didn't you report outside like I asked you to?" the professor asked.

"You didn't say anything in my mind about where to go," Bobby replied. You just said 'come.'"

"Are you sure you're remembering this clearly?" the professor asked. "I do believe I specifically told you to go outside."

"Why do you need me out there? You said there's no fighting going on."

"True. But The Hulk is out there screaming your name."

Bobby was shocked. "Why? What could he possibly want with me?"

"Forgive me if it seems like I was trying to put you in danger," the professor said. "But that's why I wanted you to go outside. To find out."

"Cyclops and Storm apparently aren't getting any results," Logan said. "The big beast has been out there for almost half an hour, screaming for you to come out. That's all he's been doing. Just standing there and yelling."

Bobby stood there analyzing all the information for a moment. The Hulk coming to Xavier's school was strange anytime. But just standing there? Definitely not Hulk-like. And screaming out Bobby's name? As far as he was concerned, Bobby had absolutely no connection to the Hulk.

"I'll go, then," Bobby said. "If it's me the Hulk wants, then we have to figure out why."

"It might be a little too late for that," Logan said, staring at the window and walking towards it. "It looks like some of our friends are here to clean up this situation."

"You mean –"

"Yup," said Logan. "The Ultimates."

* * *

"Alright, I'm taking the shot!" Hawkeye yelled to the pilot of the plane as he aimed his bow down towards the Hulk on the field below.

"Roger that!" the pilot yelled in response over the loud engines of the jet.

Hawkeye carefully targeted the Hulk with the arrow that would tranquilize him.

Suddenly, the pilot yelled, "Negative! Negative! Do not shoot! I repeat, do not shoot the Hulk!"

Before Hawkeye had a chance to respond, the plane suddenly veered off course, and Hawkeye lost the good angle to fire.

He ran towards the pilot and practically screamed at his face, "What the hell did you do that for?! I had a perfect shot ready!"

The pilot smiled and said, "Sorry, but you've lost authorization to fire at the Hulk. I just got a radio transmission saying that if I flew this plane any closer to Xavier's school, we would be breaking the agreement between Xavier and Nick Fury that The Ultimates are not to enter the school unprovoked and without invitation."

"Well, we've got a desperate situation here!" Hawkeye said. "If I don't do something right now, there isn't going to be a school for bald guys to make compromises over!"

"At this point, if I get any closer," the pilot began, "Banner's definitely going to aware of our arrival. He'll be on us before your bow can take effect."

"Well, Jesus Christ, what are we supposed to do then?!" Hawkeye exclaimed with a great wave of stress going through him. At first he was excited to go on this mission alone, but assistance from Captain America wouldn't sound so bad right now.

"Well, you see-," the pilot began.

"I'm moving in," Tony Stark's voice said over the radio. "I'm taking the shot in 15 seconds. Wish me luck."

Outside, Iron Man flew headfirst down towards the grass field that The Hulk and the two X-Men Cyclops and Storm were standing on, facing each other with suspense of anticipation.

Iron Man aimed is laser rifle down towards the Hulk. "Is the Hulk file uploaded?" he said.

"Has been for 2 minutes now," a voice said over the transmission. "You sure you're not drunk?"

"I told you," Iron Man said with charm in his voice, "I'm always drunk when I go into this suit. Today, however, I'm facing a hangover. It's not as fun."

"Whatever you say, Tony," the voice said. "The bullet's targeted. Just pull the trigger and Banner will be asleep faster than Fury at a Scooby-Doo movie."

"That's not very reassuring," said Iron Man. He pulled the trigger and the neon-green laser fired out at 140 miles per hour. "I happen to like CGI characters. They're fit for the big screen, I say."

Down on the field, just as the Hulk once again yelled out, "DRAKE!" the laser bullet hit the Hulk with an impact so powerful that he had been knocked 80 feet across the field before being successfully tranquilized. Cyclops and Storm looked up into the sky to see who had taken him out.

"Big Green is down," Tony Stark said up above. "Awaiting further orders."

"Since when do you follow orders?" Nick Fury said over the radio, laughing. "I'll be there in three minutes with the clean-up crew."

* * *

Scott Summers watched as the large green beast in front of him grew smaller and more pale until he was at last nothing but a weak, pathetic, nude man.

"Uh…I think we'll be needing a blanket," Storm said.

"What we need are explanations," Cyclops said as he watched Iron Man fly towards them, with the sunrise in the background behind him. Cyclops sighed. It was definitely not how he pictured starting his morning. Ever since the last time Magneto stirred up trouble and the X-Men actually resorted to fighting the Ultimates, he had wished that they wouldn't have to associate with S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore. "Great," he whispered. "Now the Hulk brings us what he gives everyone else – trouble."

"Not necessarily trouble, Scott," Professor Xavier said as he came up behind them, followed by Logan and Bobby.

Cyclops turned around and said, "I'm sure this counts as a pretty deep and complicated situation, professor."

"As you saw, the Hulk has not caused us any harm," the professor said, "besides the need to re-plant portions of the grass on our field. I'm sure S.H.I.E.L.D. can take care of this. I don't see the need to start any trouble with them at all."

"Can I get that in writing?" Tony Stark said as he landed on the ground between the two parties and removed his helmet.

"Nice to see you again, Mr. Stark," Professor Xavier said.

"Call me Tony," he said.

"Well, Tony…," Logan began, putting a big emphasis on his name, "can you explain what the hell is going on here? How did the Hulk escape the Triskelion?"

"Why was it yelling out my name?" Bobby asked. "How does it know who I am?"

"And who is that?" Storm said pointing to the man the Hulk had transformed into. Everyone turned their attention to him.

"Is that…Bruce Banner?" Professor Xavier said calmly, but shocked. "S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist Bruce Banner?"

Everyone turned to look at Tony now.

"Mr. Stark…there's a lot of explaining to be done," Professor Xavier said.

* * *

A few moments later, the jet carrying Nick Fury landed on the front lawn outside the mansion.

"Bruce sure has picked a convenient time to drag our asses down here," Janet Pym said yawning as she, Betty Ross, and Nick Fury made their way down from the jet and on to the ground.

The first thing Nick Fury heard when as he approached the X-Men was Tony Stark saying in a somewhat annoyed voice, "I'm telling you, Professor Xavier, I am not the man who's authorized to answer these questions!

"Damn straight, he isn't," Fury said, although all the X-Men's attention were already on him before he even spoke. He faced Xavier. "Hello, Charles."

"Why is it, Fury, that every time you come here, it's always following a bad situation?" Logan asked him.

"I'm a busy man, Wolverine," Fury replied. "I don't have time to come over for tea parties."

"You could have come yourself," said Logan. "We don't need the Ultimates inspecting this place."

"In case you haven't noticed, Janet Pym is wearing her civilian clothing," Fury said, looking towards Janet, who was dressed in a brown trench coat. "It means she's off-duty, and when that's the case, she is considered a civilian. And surely you're not against everyday people visiting your mansion?"

"If she's just a civilian, why did she come here?" Cyclops asked.

"I'll tell you why," Logan said. "For back-up. They needed someone to take out the Hulk, in case Stark couldn't do it alone. So you're sending your men in to deal with our affairs, Fury? Is that it?"

"Speaking of which," Xavier interrupted, "Is this in fact Bruce Banner, the man who was originally composing the Super Soldier serum for S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Nick looked down at the unconscious body of Bruce Banner. "There's no denying it."

"That means that you guys…it was you," Bobby realized in horror. "You unleashed the Hulk. He's one of you."

"You have to understand," Betty Ross said, "that the Hulk attack on Manhattan was not under the influence of S.H.I.E.L.D. or any-"

"That's bull!" Logan snapped. "You took credit for cleaning up a mess that you caused yourself! Judging by the looks of it, this is your second time in doing so."

"Unless you can provide me with a different explanation, Nick," Xavier said, "I'm afraid that I will have to assume that it was you who unleashed the Hulk here. I am not aware of any way how or any motivation for the Hulk to be here at my school. So tell me, do you have an explanation as to why the Hulk came here?"

Everyone waited for Fury to answer, until he finally looked down at the ground and said, "No, Charles, I don't."

Janet scoffed. "This argument is making no sense at all. None of us know how Banner got here, and it's pointless for us to be arguing about this with nothing but assumptions. What I suggest is that we first get Banner out of here, then worry about all the details later."

"You can take the Hulk and put this case to rest," Xavier said. "I don't want the Ultimates coming here ever again unless there's absolute danger that deals with a common cause, Nick. In exchange for this, we will not be revealing your little secret to the world that the Hulk is one of your own."

"Fair enough," Fury said. And without another word, he signaled some men to come out and retrieve Banner's body and carry it into the jet.

Several moments later, Tony, Fury, Janet, and Betty were also aboard the jet and it soared off into the air.

"Was that a wise thing you just did, professor?" Storm asked. "We have just seriously strained our relationship with the government. There's no telling what might happen next."

"Yeah, and there's a lot of unanswered questions here," Bobby said. "I know I'm not the only one here who's wondering why the Hulk was yelling my name, or how it got out of the Triskelion."

"You're all right," Xavier said. "That conversation was very incomplete. This is only the beginning of something very big."

With many questions still in their minds, the X-Men went back inside, with the sun having risen on not just a new day, but a new chain of events that would shake their lives.

* * *

Meanwhile, aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. jet, Nick Fury and others discussed this as well.

"We still don't know what he was doing while he was there," Tony said. "And we could have simply asked the X-Men, but it's too late for that now."

"It's complicated now, isn't it?" Nick Fury asked. "They know something that might be the key to this entire mystery, while we don't even know how or when the Hulk even left the Trickling."

"We could always ask him," Betty said, pointing towards Bruce. "It looks like he's waking up."

"I don't think he's waking up," Janet, who was sitting closer to Bruce, said. "It sounds more like he's mumbling something."

"What's he saying?" Tony asked.

Janet moved her ear closer to hear. Suddenly, a puzzled expression hit her face.

"What is it, Jan?" Fury asked. "What did he say?"

But Janet didn't need to answer, for Bruce was now speaking louder. Loud enough for all of them to hear:

"Peter Parker."

**TO BE CONTINUED... **


	2. Chapter 2

(Note: For Spider-Man, this takes place after the "Hollywood" arc; quite possibly in the early Carnage arc, with all those weeks that were skipped through.)

**ULTIMATE MELEE  
CHAPTER 2**  
  
"Spider-Man, you fool! You shall never defeat me!" Mysterio screamed with a menacing laugh. "I am simply too powerful for you!"  
  
"We'll see about that!" Spider-Man said heroically. With a giant leap, Spider-Man flew towards Mysterio with lighting-fast motion, striking him hard in the stomach. The impact was too much for Mysterio, and he fell off the bridge towards the river, and his doom.  
  
"Oh, thank you, Spider-Man!" the damsel in distress said. "You're my hero!" She ran over to him, lifted off half his mask, and embraced him with a long and passionate kiss.  
  
"No, I can't do this," Spider-Man said, backing off. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. Mysterio came to here to distract me from my ultimate target: Doc Ock. I must leave now. I have no choice."  
  
"Will I ever see you again?" the girl asked.  
  
"You can count on it," Spidey said, and with that, he jumped into the air, shot out his webs, and began swinging away.

* * *

"That was one of the cheesiest things I have ever seen in my life," Gwen Stacy, looking up at the screen, said out loud.  
  
"Shhh!" all the people surrounding them in the theater room ordered.  
  
Peter Parker, who sat to her right, softly said, "I am so freakin' embarrassed." He watched in horror at how unrealistically they portrayed him on screen, and worse than that, making a large amount of money off it. The Spider-Man movie now had the biggest opening weekend ever. It was only in the third week after its release that Peter had decided to finally see it.  
  
"Come on Peter," Mary Jane, who sat to his right, whispered. "It's just a movie. They don't know the real you. If they did, it would be accurate and much better film."  
  
"Not with this acting, it wouldn't," Gwen Stacy said loudly, once again provoking the audience to ask for her silence. Unfortunately, it was too late for that to take effect. The usher had arrived next to Gwen's aisle seat.  
  
"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to leave if you keep up these disturbances," the usher said.  
  
"Gladly," she said, standing up and walking away. To make her grand exit, she yelled out, "THIS MOVIE SUCKS ANYWAYS!"  
  
As soon as Gwen left the auditorium, Peter turned to Mary Jane and asked, "Do you want to get out of here too? I can't stand another minute of this thing."  
  
"Yeah, sure," Mary Jane said, although with a small hint of regret in her voice. Together holding hands, they left the theater.  
  
When they got outside, Gwen was nowhere to be found on the street.  
"She'll be alright," Mary Jane says. "She knows her way back to your house." With that, they started to walk down the road back towards the Parker's house.  
  
It was five minutes later when Peter started to feel uncomfortable. The evening setting of his Queens neighborhood looked normal enough around him, but he could still sense something wrong.  
  
"Let's pick up the pace," he told Mary Jane. "I don't want Aunt May to get too worried."  
  
"Yeah sure," Mary Jane agreed.  
  
They continued walking, and even though he did not turn back to look, he could sense some footsteps behind him. Peter grew nervous.  
  
Someone was following them.  
  
"Mary," Peter whispered, "I want you to get ready to run if you have to."  
  
"What?" she asked.  
  
Letting go of Mary's hand, Peter quickly turned around on guard, to see who it was.  
  
"It's about time you guys noticed I was here," Gwen said from behind them.  
  
Relief spread through Peter; everyone was safe.  
  
"Um, Peter...," Mary Jane said.  
  
"Yeah?" he said, turning back around.  
  
But now there was somebody else standing not too far in front of them.  
  
"Parker?" Captain America said. "I'd like a word with you."

* * *

Nick Fury returned to his comfortable office in the high tower of the Triskelion with a lot on his mind.  
  
As soon as he entered, he saw someone already in there.  
  
It was Hawkeye.  
  
"Can I help you, Clint?" Fury asked.  
  
"How'd the interview with Banner go?" Hawkeye asked back, apparently ready to avoid the subject of what he was doing here.  
  
"Banner denied that anything ever even happened," Fury answered. "Claims that he doesn't remember a thing."  
  
"You did run a lie-detector test, right?"  
  
"There's no point in it. The man has so many flashes of anger that it's impossible to tell when he's lying or when he's just pissed off at the question we asked him."  
  
"So where do we go from here?"  
  
"There's not a whole lot to do, truthfully. All we can do is keep Banner locked up right now. Perhaps tighten security, but that's it."  
  
"That's it?! There's a conspiracy going on here! The era of time that Banner was gone from the Triskelion has no video recollection from our cameras! And nobody knows what the hell has happened to Banner's security guards. They just left their posts, Nick. We need to know why."  
  
"All we can do now, Clint, is find Parker. He's the only lead we've got right now."  
  
"When are we sending the search party out for him?"  
  
"It's already been sent. Steve should be in Queens by now."  
  
"You sent Cap? Just Cap?"  
  
"Yeah? Why?"  
  
"Well, you're dealing with Spider-Man here. What if he fights back?"  
  
"Why would he?"  
  
"Nick, we both know how thrilled he gets when we interrupt his life."  
  
"I'm sure he'll feel better with S.H.I.E.L.D. keeping an eye on him than the Hulk showing up his doorstep."  
  
"You think Drake and Parker are somehow connected? That Banner will look for Parker just like Drake?"  
  
"We can never be too sure. That's why we're alerting Parker of the situation."  
  
"Hypothetically, if the Hulk were to show up in Queens, who would you send it to take him out?"  
  
Nick Fury raised one of his eyebrows and asked, "What is this conversation really about, Clint? Why are you here?"  
  
Hawkeye sighed and said, "I want to know why you sent in Stark to knock out the Hulk when I was already there? Why did you change the plan?"  
  
"Iron Man's laser beams were more suited for that mission," Fury replied. "There was a higher success rate. After all, we've got data on how to break down the Hulk's DNA back into human form very efficiently. No hard feelings, but it was just a better gamble than using your arrows."  
  
"I see," Hawkeye said indifferently.  
  
"Hey, man, I know you and Natasha and the others sometimes feel like you're 'secondary' compared to Cap and Thor, but you have to realize that you're just as important to this team as they are. After all, who did we send in to take out the Hulk when we unleashed him during the invasion?"  
  
"That's not a fair comparison!" Hawkeye exclaimed. "You were ready for that situation! You sent me in there because you knew that if I failed, there was Captain America as well as another entire freakin' army there ready back me up!"  
  
"Not true, Clint. Not true at all."  
  
"I don't care!" said Hawkeye. "I just want you to know; next time you have me ready to do something, I can do it. I'm your man, and if you need something done, I'll get it done."  
  
And with that, he walked out of Fury's office.

* * *

"So what's this webbing made out of?" Captain America asked, removing strands of it from his chest that Peter had shot at him by reflex when he had first seen him.  
  
"It's a secret," Peter said.  
  
"You know I can take this to the S.H.I.E.L.D. labs, get it analyzed, and it'll be on sale at Wal Mart by next month," Captain America said, smiling.  
  
"Impressive," Peter said, horrified at the idea of everyone in the world having access to his webs. He and Captain America were now onboard a helicopter flying them toward the Triskelion. It all happened so fast, and Peter couldn't recall if he had even agreed to this.  
  
"Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy have been left with explicit instructions to alert your aunt that you are spending the night at a friend's house," Cap said.  
  
"Which friend would that be?" Peter said, his mind failing to come up with a single name besides Mary and Gwen.  
  
"The one who goes by the name of 'Kong,'" Cap replied. "By the time we reach the base, I will provide you with a mobile phone to contact your aunt and inform her of this as well."  
  
Peter groaned. That cover-up was going to fall apart. Big time.  
  
He would have argued that this wasn't a good idea if something else hadn't crossed his mind at that moment.  
  
"Wait a second," he said jumping up from his seat. "How exactly do you know that Gwen Stacy knows I'm Spider-Man? You could have showed up there asking me to come to S.H.I.E.L.D. and she wouldn't know what to think."  
  
Captain America remained silent.  
  
"Don't tell me," Peter said, finally realizing the truth. "You guys have been spying on me."  
  
"Son, do you know how many enemies you have?" said Cap. "Your life has more danger involved with it than most of the members of the Ultimates. There is so much risk to it that keeping an eye on you is an important task for S.H.I.E.L.D. You know too much, kid."  
  
Although he was angry at this fact, he did understand Nick Fury's reasons for doing it. He sat back down and argued about it no more.  
  
"Alright, so it's time to explain why you need me," Peter said. "And I swear, if it's about Norman Osborn again-"  
  
"It's not about him."  
  
"Otto Octavius?"  
  
"Not him. We melted his metal arms."  
  
"Is it anyone of the guys who forced me to attack the White House with them?"  
  
"Enough with the guesses," Cap said firmly. "It's the Hulk."  
  
"What?" Peter said, confused. "What do I have to do with the Hulk?  
  
"Let me explain the situation," Cap said. "This morning, the Hulk unnoticeably slipped out of his containment space in the Triskelion and appeared in front of Xavier's School for the Gifted. The two X-Men, Cyclops and Storm, were sent out to deal with him, but he was offering no threat to them at all. Instead, he kept yelling out the name of Bobby Drake, the young mutant known as Iceman. We unleashed Iron Man to deal with the Hulk, and he successfully tranquilized him. On the way back, the Hulk muttered a certain name."  
  
"Mine?" Peter asked.  
  
"Precisely. You, as well as young Bobby Drake, are not in any way connected to the Hulk, but for some reason, he has requested to see you both. Now, we cannot ask Bobby Drake for help in solving this mystery, but we were hoping that you would lend us a hand."  
  
"What can I do?"  
  
"S.H.I.E.L.D. has previously constructed a dome made of walls so thick, that not even the Hulk will be able to penetrate though them."  
  
"I don't get it," Peter said. "What exactly are we going to do here?"  
  
"Well, I want you to know that we will do everything we can to make sure that you remain completely safe," Captain America said, with a promising look in his eyes.  
  
"But...?" Peter inquired.  
  
"But what we're going to do, if it's okay with you, is we're going to put you in that dome, drop the Hulk in, and see what happens."

* * *

"My fellow mutants," Professor Xavier began, sounding as professional he could. "It is now apparent that it may not indeed be possible for the Ultimates and our team of X-Men to co-exist peacefully. This morning's act of trespassing on our school grounds is potentially the final proof that S.H.I.E.L.D. is not completely secure with our existence. While I am not seeking to use force and violence on our nation's government, today's events may have been the foreshadowing of a war that is yet to come. I have come to a decision that I still doubt and very well might end up regretting, but it may well be the only way we can get some answers to the mystery that has appeared upon us."  
  
The X-Men listened carefully and patiently to the professor's words in his office. A tone of seriousness had flood the room since he began speaking, and they knew that tonight's decision would influence what trials they would meet in their lives for the following days, or possibly even weeks.  
  
"The mission that I have planned out will be a dangerous and risky one," Xavier continued, "but I believe it is the only way we can find the key to why the Hulk was calling out Bobby Drake's name this morning. Tonight, we must infiltrate the Triskelion and retrieve Bruce Banner."  
  
**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	3. Chapter 3

**ULTIMATE MELEE  
CHAPTER 3**  
  
"The coast is clear, Wolverine," said Nightcrawler, stepping out into the hallway. Logan followed him from behind.  
  
"Alright, let's kick some ass," Logan said, breaking out his claws from his arms.  
  
"While we should be cautious," Nightcrawler whispered. "The professor said that this mission is to be carried out in secret, not with violence."  
  
"Hey, you could have easily carried out this kind of mission yourself," Logan said. "The reason Xavier brought me along is to do the dirty work. I'm here to 'take care of' any problems that come along the way."  
  
"Is there any chance that your voluntary attitude for this mission has anything to do with the Black Widow?"  
  
"Natasha? No...that's not what I came here for."  
  
"Then there's only one more possible explanation...Captain America. He knows about you and your past, and lately you've been very curious about it."  
  
"What the hell is wrong with you? Are you actually suggesting that I should get side-tracked while we're here?"  
  
"No," Nightcrawler said. "Forget about it."  
  
Without another word, they made their throughout the Triskelion and towards the containment chambers.

* * *

It was a fairly usual casual evening for Clint Barton. Looking to rest from the excitement of the morning's events, he went over to one of his favorite bars and ordered some hard drinks. Hawkeye never exactly had a drinking problem, but sometimes getting drunk was a good way to unwind.  
  
At least, that's what Tony always told him.  
  
"Getting drunk is the best way to unwind," Tony Stark, who was sitting on the stool next to his, said once again. Tony had just gone through his fifth drink.  
  
Hawkeye stared at the television set in the bar, watching the evening news. He expected something about the morning events to come on, but nothing happened. Nice cover-up on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s part. They obviously weren't stupid enough to let news of that kind of event come out; despite how popular the Ultimates were, nobody would sleep easier knowing there were security problems at the Triskelion.  
  
"It's a shame," Tony Stark told him, while they were discussing it. "Missed my money shot."  
  
Hawkeye sighed quietly. He was sure that Tony was too drunk to think clearly, and remembered that he pretty much stole the glory from the man who was sitting next to him and rubbed it in his face, but it still bothered him nevertheless.  
  
"Well, I need to go use the gents' room," he said, and he left his stool, walking away highly uncoordinated.  
  
It was not too long after Tony left that a man Hawkeye had never seen before sat next to him. He was dressed in just about the most cliché old detective movie clothes you could think of, and a long scarf concealed the lower part of his face.  
  
"Are you Hawkeye?" the man asked, not even looking at him. Or, at least, that's what Hawkeye thought he heard from muffled sounds that came from under the scarf.  
  
"Yes, I am," Hawkeye replied. "Who are you?"  
  
But the man didn't reply. He simply took a cell phone out from his pocket and laid it down in front of Hawkeye.  
  
The man stood up and left before Hawkeye could say anything. If he had been less drunk, Hawkeye would have stood up and ran after the man, but at that moment, Hawkeye just sat there, staring at the cell phone.  
  
After a moment of careful consideration, he picked it up and scanned through its information. Its phone book was empty. Nothing was set up on it; no preferences were made. Identification? None. All he saw was that the phone did have a number, and it was currently in service.  
  
Then the phone rang.  
  
Hawkeye didn't know what was going on. He had no idea who that man was or what this phone was meant for. He didn't know weather this was some magazine trying to get an opportunity to interview him, or if he was holding a small bomb in his hand that was about to go off.  
  
There was only one way to find out. Hesitantly, he answered the call.

* * *

Logan retracted his claws.  
  
After all, what else do you do when you have two dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers surrounding you with their weapons aimed?  
  
"Well, well, well, look who it is," Nick Fury said, making his way through the crowd of soldiers, so he could come face-to-face with Logan. "Here I was thinking you X-Men wanted to have nothing to do with us."  
  
Logan, being unable to think of any clever to say, remained silent.  
  
"What are you doing here, Wolverine?" Fury asked.  
  
"Funny," Wolverine said, having come up with a good enough remark, "We were asking you the same thing this morning."  
  
"Oh, so you felt that you still owed me one last visit?"  
  
"Of course. What are friends for?"  
  
"You're in big trouble, Wolverine," Fury said, looking somewhat delighted. "I know you're probably not going to answer, but I ask you this: did you come here alone?"  
  
Logan refused to answer, but someone else did so instead. A short, but speedy S.H.I.E.L.D. soldier came running down the hall. When he stopped, he quick tried to catch his breath, and not bothering to properly address Fury, he told him, "There's been a break-in! In the containment chambers! Banner is gone!"  
  
"What?!" Fury yelled, outraged. "Oh, damn!"  
  
Fury turned to the two dozen soldiers surrounding Logan. "Keep him here. I'll send someone to take care of him."  
  
Then he turned to the messenger. "Send a message out across the Triskelion. All available Ultimates must report to the containment chambers now!"  
  
As soon as turned to run away, Logan quickly drew out his claws and made a huge leap towards the side of the S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers opposite of the one Fury had taken. He slashed his way through those that stood in his way, and began running with all his might away from them.  
  
It all happened very quickly. Taking in the bullets that were landing on his back, Logan rushed towards the nearest glass window and jumped through it, breaking the glass along the way.  
  
As soon as he started falling outside along the wall of the Triskelion building, Nightcrawler immediately showed up next to him, holding the unconscious body of Bruce Banner, and he grabbed Logan.  
  
However, Nightcrawler lost hold of Bruce Banner, and in the process, Banner woke up.  
  
"Hey-," Banner began saying, but his speech quickly turned into angry yelling. "What the &#?!"  
Nightcrawler was about to make an attempt to get a hold of Banner again, but he hesitated, seeing that Banner was now ceasing to be human.

* * *

Tony Stark made his way out of the bathroom, feeling worse now than when he came in. It was definitely time to leave. Only when he was drunk did he realize that his "the best cure for a hangover is getting drunk some more" philosophy did not work very well.  
  
His phone then rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket, and read on the outside screen: "New Text Message from Nick Fury."  
  
He flipped open the phone and accessed the message, which read:  
  
"Get over the Triskelion ASAP! Somebody's broken out Banner, and while we're not pointing fingers yet...Wolverine is here! – Nick Fury."  
  
Tony groaned. This was not the ideal night for him to deal with something like this.  
  
He began calling out to Hawkeye. "Hey, man, we're needed back at the-"  
  
But Tony looked around, and Hawkeye wasn't inside the bar. He was nowhere to be found.  
  
"Oh no, he doesn't!" Logan yelled as he was falling and watching Banner slowly transforming into the Hulk. He turned his head to face Nightcrawler. "Get me closer to him!" It wasn't the time to be making ideas, but Logan figured out what he should do.  
  
Nightcrawler, reluctantly, but ready to obey orders, teleported both himself and Logan much closer to Banner, merely inches away.  
  
Logan then jammed his claw into Banner's gut.  
  
"Wolverine!" Nightcrawler exclaimed, completely shocked.  
  
"You mother-"Banner began to yell, his somewhat transformed state enabling him to speak, but he then stopped. He fainted into unconsciousness.  
  
Bruce Banner had stopped transforming.  
  
"Let's get the hell out here," Nightcrawler yelled, quickly grabbing both Banner and Logan once again.  
  
Leaving the Triskelion behind, they bamfed away.

* * *

The last time Peter Parker had been to the Triskelion, he was kidnapped, his identity was revealed to some of his worst enemies, and he was forced to help those enemies attack the White House.  
  
He was hoping that nothing bad was going to happen this time, but he was not looking forward to coming face to face with the Hulk again.  
  
Peter saw Captain America check a nearby digital clock, and then he pulled cell phone out of a bag nearby. He tossed it over to Peter. "It's time," he said.  
  
Peter dialed in his house's number, and waited for Aunt May to pick up.  
  
However, it was Gwen who picked up the phone. "Hello?"  
  
"Gwen, it's me," said Peter.  
  
"Dude!" she yelled in excitement over the phone. "Where the hell are you?!"  
  
Captain America, apparently, having heard Gwen over the phone, shook his head in disapproval at Peter.  
  
"Um...I'm sorry, but I can't tell you, Gwen," Peter said. "But listen, did you tell Aunt May that I'm staying the night at...uh, Kong's house?"  
  
"Yeah, taken care of," Gwen said. "But she still wants to hear from you. Should I put her on the phone?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
A short moment later, he was speaking to Aunt May.  
  
"So yeah...Kong, being an old friend of mine, told me that it's okay that I stay at his house tonight so we can watch the game," Peter told her. "Is that alright?"  
  
"Of course," Aunt May said. "Besides, I rented Jersey Girl for us to watch tonight. I'm sure Gwen won't mind watching it, but I know it's not your kind of movie."  
  
Peter laughed. "Yeah, alright. So I guess I'll see you again tomorrow."  
  
They said good-bye to each other and hung up.  
  
Peter handed the phone back to Captain America.  
  
"Did she sound like she believed you?" Cap asked Peter, while putting the phone back into the bag.  
  
"Yeah, I think she did," Peter said, sounding somewhat disappointed at the idea.  
  
"Hey kid, I told you. We're going to work this situation out. All we need is an evening of your time. Now, you have your costume with you, right?"  
  
"Yeah, it's under my clothes."  
  
"Alright, we'll be arriving at the Triskelion in two minutes."

* * *

"Okay, let's recap," the Black Widow said. "Captain America is on his way with the Parker kid, Tony's coming back from a bar, Thor's in Croatia, and Hawkeye is missing?"  
  
"That's the situation," Janet Pym said. She and the Black Widow, along with Hank Pym and Nick Fury were gathered outside of Banner's containment chamber.  
  
"Well, it's pretty obvious what happened here," Hank Pym said, looking at the containment chamber. "That teleporter got him out of here. It's the only possible explanation, considering how the cell is properly in working order. Not to mention the fact that it's closed, and completely sealed."  
  
"Except there's a big difference from this escape and the last one," Janet said. "Tonight, the alarm went off. It detected that Banner was missing."  
  
Black Widow nodded. "Meaning that last time, somebody overrode all the security controls, and blocked out the visual feeds we get of this place."  
  
"Leaving us with one explanation," Fury declared. "It was one of us. Somebody here from the Triskelion unleashed the Hulk. Possibly even one of the Ultimates."

* * *

"Nice job," Cyclops said to Nightcrawler and Logan while was buckling up the unconscious Bruce Banner with a seatbelt. "Very nice job indeed..." Then his voice changed from a friend, proud tone, to a disgusted and angry sound. "...you idiots!"  
  
They were now aboard the X-Jet, which had picked up Logan, Banner, and Nightcrawler once they had bamfed their way to New York City.  
  
"Logan, how could you be so reckless?!" Cyclops exclaimed angrily. "Why the hell did you stab Banner in his stomach?!"  
  
"What was I supposed to do?" Logan said back. "Hit him on the head to piss him off even more so he could transform into the Hulk faster than we could blink?"  
  
"I'm afraid I have to be on Logan's side, Cyclops," Nightcrawler said. "We did not exactly have much time to make decisions. We were falling very, very, very quickly."  
  
"I don't care!" Cyclops said. "If that's honestly the first thing that could come to your mind in a situation like that, we should have sent Colossus instead!"  
  
"We got Banner," said Logan calmly, losing interest in Cyclops's arguing. "That's what you wanted, right?"  
  
Cyclops sighed. "How do I know he isn't dying right now?"  
  
"I stabbed him while he was transforming," Logan said. "His somewhat-Hulk state kept him from bleeding."  
  
"So he should be okay?" Cyclops asked, waiting to know if he can be relieved or not.  
  
"Yeah," Logan said. Then he grinned and added, "But he sure felt that one."

* * *

"Now would be a good time to take care of it," Fury told Hank quietly as they all left the containment chamber.  
  
Hank Pym went back to his own office and sat down in a chair by his computer.  
  
Making sure nobody was around to watch him, he accessed his private files that could only be viewed by himself.  
  
"Still there," he whispered, relieved, as he saw that a very important file he contained had not yet been discovered.  
  
He just sat there staring at the icon for a second, imaging all the power he could gain through blackmail with that little media clip.  
  
But he had decided he would be an honorable man from now on, and listen to orders. With that, he obeyed Nick Fury's request and began deleting the video file that had consisted of that early morning's surveillance feed from Bruce Banner's containment chamber.  
  
After it was done, he sighed in relief, knowing that his worries were gone. Now nobody else would know who had released the Hulk.  
  
**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	4. Chapter 4

**ULTIMATE MELEE  
CHAPTER 4**  
  
Captain America had led Peter Parker through the Triskelion and up to Nick Fury's office. On his way there, Peter saw that something big had happened not too long ago. The people of the building all had nervous looks on their faces, and through little bits of conversation, Peter could hear them say, "The Hulk is gone."  
  
Cap must have heard this too, and that's probably why he asked Peter to pick up the pace.  
  
"This is some serious $# right here, Nick," Tony Stark said, as Peter and Cap walked into the office. Inside were the rest of the Ultimates, minus Hawkeye and Thor. "We need to march down to Xavier's place and get Banner back."  
  
"Obviously," Nick Fury began, "that's easier said than done."  
  
"Hey, Nick, the kid's here," Quicksilver announced, and everybody in the room turned their attention towards Cap and Peter.  
  
"Peter Parker," Stark said. "It's nice to see you again."  
  
"Yeah, yeah," Peter said, skipping the greetings. "Listen, Captain America told me what's going on, and I'll help you out, as long as I can get back home before tomorrow."  
  
Everybody in the room laughed.  
  
"Kid," the Black Widow said, "Something a lot bigger than you is happening here. Whether you like it or not, solving this problem may require you to lose that secret identity of yours."  
  
"It's not exactly a secret anymore," Peter said back. "Everybody in this place knows about it. I just don't want the word getting out."  
  
"Parker, everything private here stays in the building," Fury said. "All S.H.I.E.L.D. employees are bound by contracts of confidentiality-"  
  
"That sure explains the Hulk's escape this morning," Peter interrupted, leaving Fury to frown. "Obviously security here isn't as tight as you guys would like to think."  
  
"I say let the Hulk have this toddler," Scarlet Witch said. "He's obviously not going to cooperate with us."  
  
"Who the hell are these two?" Peter asked, looking at Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.  
  
"They're part of our shadow team," Fury explained. "Unlike the Black Widow and Hawkeye, these two won't be upgraded to public status because...well, they're mutants."  
  
"Speaking of Hawkeye," Captain America said, leaving Peter with no opportunity to criticize this fact, "Where is he?"  
  
"He's pulled a vanishing act," Tony said. "He and I were at a bar earlier tonight, and when I went to use the restroom, I came back to find him gone."  
  
"Do you have idea where he might have went?"

* * *

Hawkeye peeked out from behind the bushes as he saw the jet landing down on the school campus. And if it contained anybody important, it most likely had to be Banner.  
  
He saw three of the X-Men exit the plane. One of them was carrying Banner's body.  
  
Bingo.  
  
He got his bow ready and prepared to move in.

* * *

"I honestly have no clue," Tony said.  
  
"With the kidnapping of the Hulk, plans will definitely have to change," Fury declared. "At the risk of sounding cliché, this means war."  
  
"War against the X-Men?" several of the Ultimates asked in unison.  
  
"I'm sure this can be properly compromised without starting a large-scale fight between Xavier's students," Cap said. "All we really need is Banner back."  
  
"Yeah...why is that again?" Peter asked. "After all, he was screaming Bobby Drake's name, right? Can't we just have the X-Men deal with it?"  
  
"Well, kid, it's standard policy for the U.S. government to deal with situations like this," Fury replied. "Besides, this Hulk behavior all started here in the Triskelion. It means that no matter what, we're involved, whether we like it or not."  
  
"So basically, we have to 'convince' the X-Men to give him up," Scarlet Witch said. "And since the Hulk is conveniently there at the scene of the mission, this might just be the perfect opportunity for you to tag along, kid."  
  
Peter groaned. Just what he was looking forward to. Fighting people like Wolverine.  
  
"That's right," Stark agreed. "Tomorrow morning we'll drop them a visit. We can't just leave this situation to the X-Men. They might end up doing something...unpredictable."  
  
"Or someone else might," the Black Widow said.  
  
Everybody turned to her.  
  
Without being asked, she answered, "Well, there seems to be some kind of outside force involved here. Someone who has been causing all of this. Releasing the Hulk, telling him who to go after, etc. And these person, or people could have easily have abducted Hawkeye. Someone here is being the puppet master. Let's hope that they don't get to the X-Men and Banner before we do."

* * *

The coast of Croatia was one of Thor's favorite places to be. So many good places to meditate were by the Adriatic Sea. If Thor ever admitted to taking vacations, this would be one.  
  
Today, he was sitting quietly on an empty beach, watching the beauty of the morning sun, and enjoying the slight breeze coming his way, along the sound of the calm waves. With eyes clothes, he sighed. This is what relaxing was meant to be.  
  
Then came the great disruption. His cell phone rang.  
  
Thor reached for his bag, which was packed with simple things like fruit and water, and he pulled out the phone that Nick Fury had insisted he should get in case he ever needed to be contacted.  
  
However, the screen did not display any name that Thor was familiar with. But it could have meant that one of the Ultimates was calling him from a phone that was not their own.  
  
He answered the call. "Hello?"  
  
A highly unusual static-like sound came from the phone, sending a wave of pain throughout Thor's head.  
  
Next thing he knew, he didn't know anything. It was as if his mind was blank, and incapable of creating an independent thought. His free will was fried.  
  
Then a sinister voice from the phone said, "Listen to me very carefully, Thor. There is something that you must do..."

* * *

"AH! OH MEIN GOTT!" Nightcrawler screamed in terror, dropping Banner's body. Following that, he himself passed out and dropped hard onto the ground.  
  
"What the hell-?" Logan said, quickly turning around to see what had happened. There was an arrow stuck in Nightcrawler's back. Someone had shot him. SNIKT! Logan busted out his claws, prepared to fight.  
  
Cyclops, too, had turned to see what was going on, and just as he did, an arrow quickly flew by him, narrowly missing his ear. He ducked and rolled on the ground as another arrow flew right above him.  
  
Logan looked to see who the attacked was, and he was not surprised to find that it was of them.  
  
"THEY'VE FOLLOWED US!" Logan yelled at the top of his lungs, hoping someone inside the school will come outside to see. "THE ULTIMATES ARE HERE!"  
  
The attacker, who Logan recognized as the Ultimate known as Hawkeye, had emerged from the tall bushes that surrounded the landing area for the jet.  
  
"How the hell did you guys get here so quick?!" Cyclops shouted out to him, as he hid behind the nearest tree.  
  
Hawkeye ignored Cyclops and aimed his bow at Logan.  
  
"Surrender Banner," Hawkeye said in a dull, mindless voice.  
  
"Tell Fury that we'll give him back once we're through with him!" Logan yelled at him in response.  
  
"Surrender Banner or die, James Howlett," said Hawkeye.  
  
The mention of his name caught Logan off guard, and Hawkeye fired an arrow at Logan, successfully landing in his stomach. The arrow's effects made Logan feel numb, and he fell to his knees, clutching the arrow and trying to pull it out. This proved difficult, as the arrow was in pretty deep.  
  
Hawkeye began to move in closer towards Banner's body, and neither Logan nor Nightcrawler could do anything about it now.  
  
Cyclops, breathing heavily, prepared himself.  
  
He jumped out from behind the tree and shot a stream of laser out of his eyes at Hawkeye. It successfully hit, and Hawkeye was knocked down to the ground, his bow having been knocked away from his hand.  
  
Cyclops ran up to Hawkeye, who had attempted to grab his bow, which was five feet away, but Cyclops kicked it further away from him. He then stomped his foot down onto Hawkeye's stomach.  
  
"I'd advise you not to move," Cyclops said, looking down at him, with a grin of success on his face. "Let's hope you're important enough to be held up for ransom."  
  
Cyclops leaned down, and with one soft, but effective punch, he knocked out Hawkeye.  
  
"Good news," Cyclops called out back to Logan, who had just managed to pull the arrow out of his stomach. "It looks like we'll probably get a little more information than we wanted."

* * *

"Well, well, well, here we are on the way to Xavier's place," Quicksilver said cheerfully. "Excited, sis?"  
  
"Of course," Scarlet Witch replied. "It's only natural that we got picked for this kind of mission."  
  
"For the last time," Captain America said, starting to get irritated. "You were not brought along on this mission just because you are mutants. You were brought along because of your ties to the X-Men, which may increase our chances for a friendly resolution. We would like to avoid violence if at all possible."  
  
"I second that," Peter said weakly. He, Captain America, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, the Wasp, and the Black Widow were now all aboard a heavily armed jet that was flying them to the X-Men mansion. Iron man was flying with them beside the jet. It was now the dead of the night and they had spent the last several hours briefing for the mission and preparing themselves.  
  
Peter had been told to do only one thing: Stick with Cap.  
  
"Assist him only if necessary," Nick Fury had told him. "He'll protect you once you two get to Banner. Hopefully, he won't have transformed into the Hulk. It would be much easier to test out why he wanted you using the Dome Experiment."  
  
This had not comforted Peter. Although causing chaos at the X-Men mansion wasn't something to he was interested in, being dropped into a closed area with the Hulk was something that he had hoped would only stay in his worst nightmares.  
  
"Don't be so nervous, son," Cap said to Peter. "This conflict at the Xavier Institute will not be an all-out melee. Just think of it as a theft mission. We don't want to cause mass destruction, which is exactly why we didn't require Giant-Man for this."  
  
"That's one reason," the Black Widow said. "The other being that Janet didn't want him to."  
  
"Oh please," Janet scoffed. "As long as I wouldn't have to talk to him, I'm completely okay with him coming along."  
  
"Get some sleep," Captain America said. "All of you. I have a feeling we'll all be doing a lot of running at dawn."  
  
They all nodded, and attempted to closer their eyes and force themselves into a slumber, even though they all knew that the anticipation would keep them wide awake and full of energy.  
  
"It may be temporary," Captain America said, smiling at Peter. "But welcome to the Ultimates."

* * *

"Hawkeye has failed us," the Leader said. He was gathered in a remotely dark room with a few others. "His attempt to capture the Prophet has failed, and the X-Men have him in their custody now."  
  
"Lucky for us, the mind-control effects will have worn off when he wakes up," one of the followers said. "He will not remember a thing, and neither Xavier nor Jean Grey can retrieve those lost memories. The only ones who will be blamed are the Ultimates."  
  
"This failure shall still be frowned upon, Cyrek," another man, who was not a member of their secret society, said.  
  
"Never speak the Leader's name!" a follower hissed.  
  
"It is alright," the Leader said. "Mr. Fisk here is not a member of our organization, and therefore, is not required to obey our laws."  
  
"Thank you," Wilson Fisk, who was known to be the Kingpin of Crime, said. "Now, you have seized control of Thor, correct?"  
  
"It has been done," the Leader replied.  
  
"Very well," Kingpin said. "Once he has carried out his orders, I shall make a final consideration of whether to continue funding your plan."  
  
The Leader laughed. "At this rate, how could anything go wrong? We operate in untraceable secret, and neither the X-Men nor the Ultimates have a clue about who we are or what we're doing."  
  
The Kingpin frowned and said, "It is not wise to underestimate S.H.I.E.L.D.'s power. There is no doubt that Nick Fury is very curious to know what kind of influence he was under during that period of time that the Hulk was unleashed. Nick Fury is a smart enough man to find a way to regain the surveillance footage and see himself unlocking Bruce Banner's containment chamber."  
  
"Correct," the Leader said. "But does he have any leads right now? Normally, tracing the phone call would be the best option, but we have gone through great lengths to make sure that he can't do that."  
  
"I'm trusting you on this one," the Kingpin said, standing up from his chair and beginning to leave the room. "You better hope that Thor successfully completes his mission. It would be our greatest achievement yet. And as always, if you require any assistance, which wouldn't at all surprise me, don't hesitate to ask me to send it one of my own assassins."  
  
"Thank you, Mr. Fisk," the Leader said. "You will not regret to see the day that the Trinity will be complete."

* * *

Thor rapidly flew across the Atlantic Ocean, sometimes at such a low altitude, that waves were being made on either sides of him.  
  
The flying was almost natural to him, and if he were not under certain mind-control, he may have not had the mental discipline to do it otherwise. His mind was blank, and free of thoughts and worries.  
  
Except one thought, that is. His job. His order. His mission. It must be completed. It was the most important thing he could do right now.  
  
He repeatedly muttered it under his breath: "Kill the Ultimates, kill the Ultimates, kill the Ultimates..."  
  
**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	5. Chapter 5

**ULTIMATE MELEE   
CHAPTER 5**

It was coming.

Bruce could sense it.

It was coming.

One more.

It was coming.

The final piece of the Trinity.

It was coming.

And then he would be free of this curse.

Here it comes.

Bruce yelled the name out loud.

It had come.

After the tension left him, he sighed and relaxed.

It was finally over.

And then his memory was erased of these thoughts.

* * *

"What did he just shout out?" Jean Grey asked, recoiling from Bruce Banner's shout. She and the professor were gathered in a room where Bruce Banner was lying comfortably on a bed. "Did he just yell...?"

"Yeah, he did," Bobby Drake confirmed, rushing into the room. "I heard it from outside. He said-"

"Another name," the professor said. "But what could that individual possibly have to do with the Hulk?"

"Same thing that I have to do with the Hulk," said Bobby. "Something we don't know."

It had now been twenty-four hours since Bobby Drake heard his name be shouted out loud by the Hulk. During the past day, he had spent a countless amount of time pondering over why that had happened. Bobby himself knew that he had never in his life gotten involved with Bruce Banner. But somehow the man knew him, and Bobby had to know why. He knew that he was potentially in danger. Him, and this person whose name Banner had just yelled out.

At that moment, Bruce woke up. His first reaction was screaming, followed by him exclaiming, "WHAT'S GOING ON?!" WHERE THE HELL AM I?!"

"Dr. Banner, you are in no danger," the professor said calmly. "I am Charles Xavier, and you are here at my school for-"

"I'm in the X-Men mansion?!" Bruce spat. "How did I get here?"

"Dr. Banner, I will have to ask you to calm down," said Xavier. "Although I had placed locks on your mind to prevent you from transforming into the Hulk, I would still appreciate if you did not shout and that you give me the opportunity to explain what has happened to you."

"I know what's happening here," Bruce said seriously. "I've gone insane. I've been having blackouts, or at least, that's what everyone's been telling me. They keep telling me how I've been shouting out random names. Bobby Drake, Peter Parker-"

"What?" all three mutants said.

"When exactly did you say Peter Parker's name?" Xavier asked.

"Not that I remember it," Bruce answered, "but as soon as they were transporting me back to the Triskelion on Friday morning, I blurted out that name. That's what they told me."

"Peter Parker..." Bobby repeated. "That's the guy who's Spider-Man, isn't he? That makes three names. Parker, me, and-"

"Wait a second," Banner interrupted. "You're Bobby Drake?"

"Yes, he is," Jean answered for Bobby, "And he's very concerned about what's going on."

"And did you just say that I gave out three names?" Banner asked. "Who was the third?"

Jean ignored Banner and turned to the professor. "Should we try and contact Parker?"

"There's no use," Xavier said, sighing. "The Ultimates will have most likely gotten to him by now."

"I need some answers now," Banner said impatiently. "Why did you bring me here?"

"Our association with the Ultimates has ended," Xavier replied. "And you, Dr. Banner – you are an important part of our cause that we need to use to get a handle on this situation."

"You mutant bastards!" Banner exclaimed. "You're using me!"

"Dr. Banner, are you extremely positive that you have no recollection of these events, or even a reason as to why you yelled out these names?" the professor asked, unaffected by Banner's comment.

"I told you!" Bruce cried out. "I don't remember anything!"

The professor closed his eyes and formed a concentrated look on his face. Jean and Bobby knew what that meant.

"Who are you talking to, professor?" Bobby inquired.

"The other X-Men," Xavier replied. "I need to alert them of these new developments. I cannot even imagine what we'll learn from Hawkeye later on."

* * *

All across the mansion, the other X-Men heard the professor's voice in their head tell them what was just discovered.

In the Danger Room, Logan and Colossus were sparring, preparing for the next attack from the Ultimates. When they heard Xavier's psychic transmission, they stopped dead.

"Parker?" Colossus said, looking intently at Logan. "Peter Parker? Spider-Man? The one you've met up with several times?"

"Yeah, that's the one," Logan said. An expression of confusion hit his face. "I know who that kid is, but who the hell is this Geldoff?"

* * *

Elektra's cell phone rang and gave her a rude awakening. She tightly opened her eyes and looked at the light in-between the blinds of her window. It was dawn.

Not a lot of people had her number, and there was only one man who had the nerve to call her at this early hour.

"What do you want?" she said, answering the call.

"Elektra, my darling, good morning," the Kingpin's cheerful voice said over the phone.

"Why are you calling me?" she asked coldly.

"I have a new assignment for you," the Kingpin said. "And the reward will be much more than you can expect."

"Explain," Elektra said, getting up from her bed and putting a robe on.

"Do you remember the ancient manuscript I had you steal from that museum in Greece two weeks ago?" Kingpin asked.

"How could I forget?" Elektra replied, rolling her eyes. "It was much more guarded then you described. I had to kill the security guards once they caught me due to my lack of preparation."

"Yes, well, I went after that manuscript due to the recommendation of a man named Cyrek, who had informed me that the text written on it can lead to a hefty amount of power."

"And you believed him?" Elektra asked skeptically. "What exactly was written on that manuscript anyway?"

"It roughly translated into this: 'The day will come when a Prophet will be born who shall have the power to transform into a beast of unimaginable rage. He will be defeated and caged away, but his purpose will then only begin. He shall cry out the names of three unique individuals that will serve as the pieces of the Trinity, the key to the power that shall be granted to the one who is most worthy of it.'"

"Uh-huh," Elektra said, with an uninterested tone

"The age of the Prophet has come, Elektra," the Kingpin said. "He is the Hulk, and he has already begun to reveal the pieces of the Trinity. Cyrek has constructed a computer program used over telephones that can hypnotize people to carry out a certain order for him, and also make them reveal the truth to any question he asks. Through this process, he has gathered evidence that the first two names the Prophet has revealed are a young man named Peter Parker, who has yet to be identified, and the other is Bobby Drake, who is known as Iceman, a member of the X-Men."

"Not that I believe any of this bull$&," Elektra said, "but what do you want me to do?"

With that, Kingpin revealed the assignment, "Hell will be raised on the grounds of the X-Men mansion this morning, so it shouldn't be too hard. Your assignment is to capture Bobby Drake as soon as possible and bring him to me."

"Just how much are you willing to pay me for this?" Elektra asked, shocked that the Kingpin would request an assignment like that.

"Ten times the amount of your last job," the Kingpin answered proudly. "I regard this as very important. "Bring him to me unconscious, but alive."

"Alright, as long as you've got the cash, I'll do it," Elektra agreed. She was about to end the conversation, but her skepticism made her ask the question: "By the way, if this Cyrek can magically order people around over the phone, why didn't you just force me to do this assignment rather than ask me to?"

"Because," the Kingpin began to answer, "As much as support Cyrek's cause, I don't completely rely on his methods to be used with things than can be done the old-fashioned ethical way."

"Alright then," Elektra said, satisfied with the answer. "I'll leave for Xavier's place in ten minutes."

"Thank you," the Kingpin said happily. "Now, I'd love to stay and chat, but I really must go now. It's time to ask Cyrek to put his little creation to good use. We still need to find out who Peter Parker is."

* * *

Ororo was halfway done dressing when the phone rang.

"I'm not gonna answer it," Rogue mumbled, who was still trying to sleep, despite her bed being right next to the phone.

Ororo sighed in frustration. The professor's message had definitely come as a surprise to her, and she was embarrassed to find herself unready to discuss this with the other X-Men; most of them having already been awake now. She didn't want any delays, but she picked up the phone anyway.

"Hello?" she answered. But then she felt a wave of static enter her mind and her will, for a moment, was frozen.

"What is the third name the Hulk revealed in his sleep?" a cold, icy voice asked.

Rogue, who was watching Ororo, heard the voice from far several feet away, but unlike Ororo, she was not affected by it. Rogue watched Ororo, who now had a dumb, mindless expression on her face, answered, "Geldoff."

"Who is he?" the voice over the phone asked.

"A student here at the Xavier Institute," Ororo unwillingly answered. "Just like Bobby Drake, he's a mutant."

"And do you know who Peter Parker is?"

Rogue jumped out of her bed and grabbed the phone away from Ororo.

"WE'RE NOT INTERESTED IN WHAT YOU HAVE TO SELL!" she yelled into it. With that, she ended the call.

Ororo suddenly regained her senses. She looked around, dumbfounded. "What just happened here?" she asked.

Rogue looked down at the phone she was holding and began trembling. She had to tell the professor what she had just witnessed.

* * *

"We have a problem," the Leader said, ending the transmission. "They caught us. Storm wasn't the only one in the room. Someone heard me talking to her and turned off the phone."

"But my lord, does that mean –"a follower began.

"Yes," the Leader confirmed. "It means that because Storm went through a similar experience, the X-Men will actually believe Hawkeye's story now that he's been caught. They'll put two and two together and realize that whoever's doing all this, they're operating over telephones."

The Kingpin, who was also in the room, chucked. "Not exactly operating in shadow anymore, Cyrek, are you?"

* * *

"For the last time," Hawkeye begged, "please stop asking me these questions! I don't know anything about it, I swear! I was just doing my job! I was asked to take out the Hulk, so I obeyed those orders. Then that night, I went a bar, some guy comes and hands me a phone. It rang, I answered it, and then I completely blacked out. I don't know what happened after that, and I certainly don't remember ever coming here!"

"He's telling the truth," Xavier assured the X-Men.

"So what does this mean, professor?" Rogue asked.

"It must have something to do with those phone calls," the professor finally decided. "I will alert every student in the school not to answer a single telephone call from an unrecognized number."

"Great idea," Logan said sarcastically, unconvinced that it's the best precaution to take. "Caller ID solves all our problems, don't it?"

"Excuse me," Hawkeye said, who was tied up in a chair and surrounded in a room full of dangerous battle-ready mutants, "But when comes the part where I'm released?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Barton," the professor apologized, "But until this situation is sorted it, the safest thing for us to do is to keep you here in the school. It would be highly dangerous for us to allow you to escape."

"You can't do this!" Hawkeye yelled angrily. "I haven't done anything! I shouldn't be here! I DEMAND THAT YOU LET ME GO!"

"Listen up punk," Logan said, jumping it front of Hawkeye and leaning in with a threatening face. "You an' Banner are stayin' here until we tell you otherwise. An' there ain't nothin' you can do to change that."

Hawkeye's eyes widened. "Banner is here?!"

"Nice going, Wolverine," Cyclops laughed. "You sure know how to keep these things quiet."

But Cyclops's laughter was overshadowed by Hawkeye, who was now laughing hysterically.

"What's so funny?" Storm asked, looking at Hawkeye like he was insane.

"You – you guys," Hawkeye managed to say while trying to catch his breath. "You honestly think that keeping both me and the Hulk hostage is good idea? You guys are screwed."

Suddenly, the loud sounds of jet landing came from outside.

"Be ready," Hawkeye warned, grinning. "Because the Ultimates don't forgive and forget so easily."

** TO BE CONTINUED...**


	6. Chapter 6

**ULTIMATE MELEE   
CHAPTER 6**

Thursday, 6:07 A.M., Two Days Earlier...

"Alright, Dr. Banner, I have your current medical records and it appears that the Hulk serum in your blood is not deteriorating at all," Dr. Henry Pym said, tapping a paper on a clipboard, while standing outside of Bruce Banner's containment cell.

"That can't be!" Banner exclaimed. "I designed that formula myself! The effects were never supposed to be permanent!"

"On a normal occasion," Dr. Pym agreed. "However, as you know, since you added Captain America's blood, the final outcome was –"

"I know, I know," Banner said, banging his head against the wall of unbreakable glass. He sighed and had a desperate look in his eye. "Is there anything, anything at all that we could do to make it go away?"

"No, I'm sorry," Dr. Pym said. "I've done all I can."

"Well, thank you," Banner said, walking away from the glass wall. "I appreciate the fact that you've done this. I trust you with those records more than anybody else."

Just as Dr. Pym gathered his papers in preparation to leave, he suddenly witnessed Bruce stop dead while he was walking and fall to the floor.

"Oh my God!" Dr. Pym burst out, panicking. "Security! Get in there! I think he might be having a seizure!"

5 minutes later, a handful of S.H.I.E.L.D. paramedics and security guards surrounded Banner inside his containment cell. The guards had tranquilizer guns ready, and the doctors examined him with great caution.

"His breathing appears to be fine," one of the paramedics said, leaning her ear close to Banner's face. "Although, it sounds like he's trying to say something-"

Suddenly, Banner yelled out, "BOBBY DRAKE!"

At will, the guards right in front of Banner fired their guns at him.

They then backed away slowly.

"He's out," one of the guards confirmed.

Outside of the cell, Nick Fury and Hank Pym watched as the paramedics injected Banner with numerous drugs.

Fury turned to Pym, and with a serious look on his face, he said, "We're keeping this quiet for now."

* * *

Friday, 3:37 A.M., One day later...

Nick Fury was resting in his sleeping quarters when suddenly he was awakened by the loud ringing of his phone. "What the hell...?" he whispered. "I thought I turned that damn thing off..."

He answered the phone, expecting it to be something dramatically important.

He heard static, and then his mind went blank.

"Listen to me, Fury," a voice said over the phone. "Who is the Hulk?"

"Bruce Banner," Fury replied, unable to resist answering.

"Are you keeping him contained at the Triskelion?" the voice asked.

"Yes," Fury answered.

"If he has a phone number, give it to me."

Fury did so.

"Excellent," the voice said, pleased. "Now, we are aware of the little event that occurred yesterday morning. What we need you to tell us is what the name that Bruce Banner said was. Tell me."

"Bobby Drake."

"Good. Now, here is what you must do: In approximately ten minutes, you are to be where Banner is, prepared to let him out of the Triskelion. Make sure there is no security around, and that all visual security cameras are cut off. Release him as soon as he is finished receiving a phone call."

* * *

The lights that suddenly turned on inside his cell awaked Bruce Banner. He checked his watch and saw that it was the middle of the night. "What now...?" he said, looking up from his bed.

Standing outside the containment cell, he saw none other then Nick Fury.

Ever since the day before, Bruce was not allowed to have any visitors, and the reason was obvious. They had told him what he did after he blacked out, and it concerned not only just them. It took Bruce an hour to convince them that he did not shout out the name of the young man who was a member of the X-Men out of his own will. Something else had made him do it, and not even Bruce could explain what.

"Great," Banner said loudly. "The man of the hour...the very late hour, that is."

Fury didn't laugh or respond in any kind of way. His face looked completely blank and lifeless.

"What do you want?" Banner asked, putting on his glasses from his bedside table. Just as he did so, the phone on the table rang.

"I'll be with you in a moment," Banner said to Fury, who still didn't appear to be reacting to what Banner was saying.

Bruce answered the call, and after hearing some static, his head began to hurt, and then it felt like he blacked out.

"Listen to me, Bruce," a man's voice over the phone said. "Nick Fury is about to open your containment center. What you need to do is slip out of the Triskelion, turn into the Hulk, and make your way to the Xavier Institute, home of the X-Men, and summon Bobby Drake to come out. Once he does, make sure that he is unconscious, get away from the X-Men, revert back to your human form, and bring him to Fisk Towers. We will be there and you will give him to us, and then allow our men to knock you out. Do you understand?"

Bruce's mind, if it had been working, would have understood that this was one of the riskiest missions ever, where plenty of things could fail. Some of the things Bruce didn't want to do. Other things he wasn't sure that he could do.

But they were his orders.

"Yes, I understand," he said, and then the call ended.

Bruce's expression now matched Nick Fury's, and he watched as Fury pushed the buttons that began opening the containment cell.

* * *

Saturday, 5:39 A.M., Now...

Peter stepped out of the jet and onto the grass in front of the school. It was a cool morning, and his suit didn't exactly keep him warm. At least his mask was doing something; his head apparently wasn't cold at all.

Suddenly, he wondered how he could be so stupid as to think of something as trivial as his comfort at a time like this. Had Professor Xavier suddenly entered his mind and attempted to keep him distracted.

Lead by Captain America, Peter and the Ultimates began advancing toward the mansion.

"Remember, kid," Captain America said. "Stay close."

"Right," Peter said nervously. There was a good chance that he and the Ultimates would lose today's battle. After all, this was the X-Men's territory, completely with a psychic that could keep track and manipulate everything that would happen in the battle.

Iron Man swooped down past the others, to alert them that he was there and ready. He flew ahead, and in an attempt to not fall too far behind, the others began sprinting quickly.

What happened next was no surprise. The X-Men came out of the front door of the mansion. Peter identified them. There definitely had to be more. The only ones who came out were Storm, Cyclops, Colossus, and to his horror, Wolverine.

Peter gulped. Coming here was a mistake.

"You're not supposed to be here!" Wolverine yelled out from across the field. The Ultimates and the X-Men, both not moving, were now only about two hundred feet apart from each other.

"Jim Howlett, you and Kurt Wagner are under arrest for infiltrating a government building and for the kidnapping of Bruce Banner!" Captain America shouted back with a might of authority in his voice.

"You're not getting any of us without a fight, especially not Nightcrawler," Logan said, smirking.

"Why?" Iron Man asked, his laser rifles pointed at Logan. "Where is he?"

Logan grinned wickedly.

"Right here," Nightcrawler announced, appearing inches in front of Captain America.

Before any of the Ultimates could respond, Nightcrawler quickly grabbed both Cap and Quicksilver, and disappeared.

"Oh $#&!" Iron Man yelled, firing off a laser beam at Logan.

It was then that all hell broke loose.

Nightcrawler appeared in front of Logan, and quickly grabbed him and disappeared, getting out of the way of Iron Man's laser. The laser hit Colossus, who was only affected by it by flinching a bit and falling back a few feet.

Black Widow had already continued running towards the mansion and had begun firing at Cyclops, but was interrupted when Cyclops fired off an optic blast straight at Black Widow, sending her flying back a long distance. She slammed into the side of jet, and sunk down onto the grass, unable to move.

Scarlet Witch, who was distracted by the disappearance of her brother, also met the same fate, as her absent mindedness had caused her to be oblivious to Cyclops, who had fired off another laser, and once it hit Scarlet Witch, unlike Black Widow, she was already down on the ground before being set flying back towards the jet, leaving her to be grinding across the grass.

Wasp, who had come prepared in her shrunk form, had started flying towards the mansion, hoping to go unnoticed, when Storm spotted her and fired off a whirlwind towards her. Wasp was caught in the small cyclone, and when it quickly died down, nobody could tell where it had blown her away.

Iron Man had repeatedly fired more laser at Colossus, who as now running towards him. Colossus had managed to dodge many of them, and Iron Man noticed that he was getting to close to him for comfort. Before Iron Man decided it was time to fly and get away, it was too late. Colossus had leaped towards Iron Man, and with one efficient punch to the chest, knocked Iron Man over onto the ground. Colossus repeatedly jumped on top of him until Iron Man appeared to stop struggling to get up. He was down for the count.

Peter, who had managed to avoid getting targeted, had spotted where Nightcrawler left Captain America and Quicksilver.

"Oh...my...God..." was all Peter could say when he spotted them falling from 300 feet in the air, yelling loudly.

Nightcrawler had left them in the sky.

Peter shot his webbing at Captain America. It narrowly caught Cap, and Peter yanked the webbing and Cap towards himself.

He then shot out another line of webbing at Quicksilver, but it was suddenly violently interrupted by Storm, who had blown it way from its course.

Peter was about to attempt to catch Quicksilver once again, but Cyclops had shot on optic blast at Peter, and while Peter successfully dodged it, it kept him achieving and opportunity to fire his webbing again.

Quicksilver fell and slammed into the ground with a loud cry of pain.

Captain America's fall however, since he was tied to Peter's webbing and flying his direction, was somewhat more smooth, as he crashed into Peter, sending them both ramming onto to the ground.

Cyclops came their way, and he looked down on them, full prepared, and touching his visor, ready to shoot.

"Don't you dare move," Cyclops said to them, with a ferocious look on his face.

Peter slowly turned to look at Captain America, who was lying there looking like he was just an inching away from jumping back up and landing a kick on Cyclops's face.

"You told me to stay close to you," Peter said weakly. "Look where that got us. By saving your life, I've killed both of us."

"Oh, believe me, Parker!" Cyclops yelled angrily, as if he wanted everyone to here of the X-Men's knowledge. "You're too important to kill!"

"How do you know about that...?" Captain America said in disbelief.

The rest of the Ultimates who were down on the ground throbbing with pain but still conscious, including Scarlet Witch and Black Widow, heard this too and realized that the X-Men knew more than they expected them to

Suddenly, a bullet came out of nowhere and landed right in Cyclops's shoulder, making him shriek with pain and drop down to the ground.

Numerous other bullets came, hitting the rest of the X-Men, including Wolverine and Nightcrawler, who had just reappeared behind Cyclops.

Storm was hit right in the heel, which made her completely collapse, as if her legs were suddenly nonexistent.

Even Colossus, who was generally bulletproof, was suddenly hit in the chest, and he too fell down on his knees, and then lost consciousness.

These were not normal bullets.

At first everyone's reaction to this was that it had to be one of the Ultimates who had not arrived there with the others, like Thor or Hawkeye. But when one of these bullets hit Captain America, sending him crying with pain, they all realized that it was someone who was on neither the Ultimates nor the X-Men's team.

"You," Peter said, as he watched a man run up to Peter and look down on him with two guns aimed.

"So, Peter Parker is Spider-Man..." the man said. "It's time for you to come with me, kid."

Peter knew this man, and he had every reason to be afraid.

* * *

Elektra walked though the hallways of the mansion quietly until a student spotted her.

"Are you new here?" the boy she had run into asked. He had long dark brown hair, and spoke with a Latverian accent.

"Uh, yes, I am" Elektra said. "I was just wondering where I could find Bobby Drake."

"I believe he is in the professor's office," the boy said. "But this is not a good time to be walking around this mansion. "There is much fighting happening outside."

"I'll be sure to be careful," Elektra said, walking past him and away.

"Great," she whispered. "Where the hell is this professor's office...?"

Suddenly, she heard a gunshot come from behind here. She quickly turned around and drew out her weapons.

What she saw was the boy she was talking to had been shot.

And the assassin was now raising his guns towards Elektra herself.

"Tell me," the assassin said threateningly. "Where is Bobby Drake?"

* * *

"It's been done," the Leader said, walking into the Kingpin's office.

"What has?" the Kingpin asked curiously.

"I've just called the kidnappers and updated them with our current status," the Leader replied. "We've now identified all three of the Trinity pieces and I've sent two guys after the ones at the Xavier Institute, which are Geldoff and Bobby Drake. Seeing as how the Ultimates are probably already over at the mansion, there's a good chance Peter Parker is too, so we've instructed the burglars to keep an eye out for the mention of his name too." The Leader smiled proudly. "This is perfect, isn't it? We're so close to accomplishing what we set out to do."

The Kingpin, however, sighed and covered his forehead with his hand. He knew what this meant. The Kingpin had also sent Elektra to claim one of the same targets the Leader's men are going after. This could lead to serious complications.

"Tell me, Cyrek," the Kingpin inquired. "Who did you send to capture the young men?"

"Well," the Leader answered. "One of them is just some deadbeat no-name, but still qualified burglar/assassin. The other has somewhat of a bigger reputation in this field of work."

"Who?" Kingpin asked impatiently.

"His name is Frank Castle, but he's more famously known as The Punisher."

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	7. Chapter 7

**ULTIMATE MELEE   
CHAPTER 7**

"Put down the gun, darlin'" the man said, pointing his own gun at Elektra, "and tell me where Bobby Drake is."

Elektra gave a somewhat sarcastic laugh and asked, "Who sent you?" She clutched her weapons tightly, preparing to use them on impulse.

The man said nothing. He just fired his gun.

Elektra quickly ducked before she even heard the loud gunshot, and threw one of her Sais at the man like dart. It him right in the gut.

He gasped and groaned, and fell to his knees.

"He made me do this..." the man muttered, right before he fell and his chest slammed into the ground.

Elektra realized what she had just done. This man was obviously under the control of Cyrek, and was sent here to claim the pieces of the Trinity.

This made her wonder whether Cyrek had already sent somebody to get the third piece of the Trinity as well.

Elektra looked down at the man she shot; felt no regret in taking his life. She merely picked up one of his guns and shot him to the head to make sure she finished the job.

There was a somewhat soft gunshot, and the way the bullet left the gun made Elektra feel no impact from the gun at all. She leaned down towards his head to examine the bullet.

It was definitely there. But there was no blood. In fact, the bullet was stuck to the side of the man's head. And it was an unusual looking bullet, too. Instead of metal, it seemed to be composed of glass, with some kind of green substance inside.

Elektra pulled the bullet out of the man's head and looked at the tip of it. There was a needle there.

This bullet was not meant to kill. It served to tranquilize the victim.

She moved towards the young student that the assassin had shot, and examined the bullet that had struck him in his right shoulder.

Also a tranquilization bullet.

She stared at the boy and grinned with amazement of how lucky she was.

It made sense. He had to be one of the Trinity pieces, which is why Cyrek sent this man to collect him, and not kill him.

Elektra picked up the boy's unconscious body. The Kingpin would be pleased with this.

Suddenly, another boy came running down the hall yelling, "What's happened here?!"

Elektra recognized this boy.

The gun was already in her hand.

Fate, apparently, was kind to her today.

* * *

"Professor, are you feeling okay?" Jean Grey asked Xavier, whom was sitting in his office, his hand pressed to his forehead, and breathing a little faster than usual. "You look like you're starting to sweat."

"I sense a great disturbance, Jean," Xavier said. "I've been paying so much attention to what's happening outside, I completely ignored the interiors. Someone is leaving the mansion. A stranger."

"Oh no," Jean gasped. "I knew we shouldn't have let Bobby out of our sights for a single second-"

"Make that three people," the professor said, breathing harder.

"Professor, that's it, we need to get you out of here," Jeans decided. "There's something wrong with you."

The professor looked like he was going to cry. "I'm sorry, Jean, but I can't read their minds. I can't control them. The Ultimates came here prepared. They're wearing some sort of invisible devices around their ears that block out my telepathy, but that stranger that just showed up – I can't sense his mind here at all."

"He's under the influence of those phone calls," Jean realized. "That means – oh, no – it can't be." And she then ran towards the door.

"Jean, where are you going?" Kitty Pryde, who was also in the room, cried after her.

"To stop them!" she revealed. "They're here to take the boys away! Stay here and take care of the professor!"

As Jean ran down the hallways towards the door out of the mansion, she blamed her own stupidity for what's happened. How could she be so ignorant and allow the X-Men to stay so off-guard? Of course there was going to be another intruder! They couldn't have possibly been the only ones to know about Peter, Bobby, and Geldoff.

She picked up her rapid pace. She had one chance to stop the intruders from stealing the boys, and the time was now.

* * *

Peter watched as the intruder clicked a little switch on the side his gun. From what he could make out with his currently poor vision, the Punisher had just changed his gun from a "Disarm" to "Tranquilize" setting.

He fired the gun at everyone around the field, including Captain America.

Peter was the only one besides the Punisher conscious now.

"Get up, kid," the Punisher said. "Let's go."

Reluctantly but quickly, Peter stood up and faced the large man in front of him. Maybe he could combat him and get his guns away from him, but Peter didn't think he should take the risk. He was also incredibly thankful that he had his mask on. He didn't want people like this to know his face.

"Hey, big guy, wait up!" a woman's voice called out. Peter turned to see who it was.

His jaw dropped.

The famous assassin Elektra was walking towards them, carrying the unconscious bodies of Bobby Drake and...Geldoff? What the hell was going on here?

"So, Spider-Man's the third, I see," she said, laughing.

The Punisher aimed one of his guns at Elektra. "You will surrender them to me," he said.

"Gladly," she said, lowering them to the ground. "I assume Cyrek sent you."

"Correct," the Punisher said. "Now, carry these bodies and follow me. There is a helicopter parked nearby."

"Whatever you say," Elektra agreed, but obviously unhappy about carrying two teenagers after finally being able to set them down.

"And you," the Punisher said, turning back to Peter. The Punisher quickly threw his first menacingly at Peter and knocked him out.

* * *

Jean rammed open the front doors of the mansion and darted outside. Just as the professor described, the front field was full of the unconscious bodies of both the X-Men and The Ultimates. Jean quickly rushed over to the nearest body, Scott's, and checked his pulse.

Still alive.

"Thank God," Jean sighed with relief.

She suddenly reminded herself of why she was out her, and quickly began to feel insecure. She might be being watched right now.

She looked around, expecting someone to pop up out of nowhere and shoot her.

She noticed something, although it wasn't as shocking as what she imagined.

From outside of the mansions tall hedges, a helicopter began rising into the air, complete with the loud, obnoxious sounds of its whirring.

She aimed her hand at the helicopter. It wasn't going anywhere.

Jean used her telekinetic powers to stop the chopper dead in midair.

She grinned. Perfect.

Suddenly, she saw one of the side doors of the helicopter open up and a woman was leaning out.

The woman was holding a gun and aiming it at Jean.

Before Jean could react, the gun had been fired at her and she blacked out.

* * *

"I'm leaving," Kingpin announced.

The Leader was shocked to hear this. "Now? When the project's almost completed?"

"Precisely," the Kingpin confirmed, walking down the hallway besides the leader, at a relatively fast pace, almost making it seem like he was trying to get away from him."

"I don't understand," the Leader said in a worried tone. "We're just about to do one of the most miraculous things in the world, and you're taking off for France? Why could you possibly want to leave the Fisk Towers at a time like this?"

"I have no more interest whatsoever in this experiment of yours, Cyrek," the Kingpin said with such fury in his voice, that he made it clear that no one should dare challenge his statement.

But the Leader knew that this meant something.

"What did you do?" he asked accusatively.

The Kingpin said nothing, walking ahead of him, so his back was turned and he didn't have to look at him.

"I know you sent the assassin Elektra," the Leader said, frowning angrily. "And I know why."

"I have no idea what you are talking about," the Kingpin said, trying not to sound guilty.

"You wanted it all for yourself, didn't you? You wanted all of the power! That's why you sent Elektra to capture Bobby Drake! To keep my from accomplishing what I set out to do!"

"HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF THAT?!" The Kingpin roared, turning back to the Leader, who was excessively frightened. "I have invested time and money into your little project and you you're saying I sabotaged it?!"

"I didn't-"

"Leave!" the Kingpin ordered in a decisive tone. "Leave at once! Your little experiment is over! I want you and your organization out of my towers within an hour!"

With that, Kingpin walked into an elevator, and shut the door, leaving Cyrek with an expression of shock and horror.

When Kingpin left the building, he greeted his driver and got into his limo.

He sighed. How could he have gotten himself mixed up in a situation like this? He felt like he needed to clear his head of all this.

Suddenly, the driver said, "Mr. Fisk, you have a phone call."

Absentmindedly, Kingpin picked up his phone in the car, and the moment he motioned it towards his ear, he realized that he just made a tragic mistake.

He heard the expected static, and if his mind had been alert and properly functioning, he would have recognized the Leader's voice for what it was.

"Mr. Fisk," the Leader's voice said. "You have been an uncooperative partner, and these complications must be highly stressful for you. That's why I want you to take a one-week vacation to Europe, taking no note or concern of what is happening at the Fisk Towers. Just relax. And forget everything you've learned about me, my organization, what we're doing, the manuscript, and everything concerning this Trinity situation. Just go and take your mind off your work." He hung up.

The Kingpin put down the phone.

"Mark?" the Kingpin said, signaling to the driver. "Will you please drive to the airport? I'm taking a long-needed vacation."

"No problem, sir," the driver said. "That is, after all, why you got that ticket to Paris?"

The Kingpin had no idea what the driver was talking about. "Err...yes. Exactly." He made a mental note to fire the driver.

The Kingpin basically got what he wanted. His head was cleared.

* * *

Bobby woke aboard a helicopter, not knowing how he got there or why.

"What's going on?" he mumbled. He looked around and saw the weirdest combination of people sitting with him. To his left, lay Spider-Man, who was also awake (Bobby couldn't actually see his face, but he could tell by the alert position he was sitting in that he was awake.) To his right, an unconscious Geldoff sat there.

On the seats across from him sat in the center a man hooded man dressed in purple robes. Bobby had no idea who this man was, but sitting to either side of him were two famous assassins, Elektra Nachios and Frank Castle, the Punisher. Both of the assassins were aiming guns at the three boys.

"Welcome, Bobby Drake," the man said. He was grinning, but something told Bobby that it wasn't out of friendliness. "My name is Erasmus. I believe you know all the others gathered around you."

Bobby knew he was in danger. And it was time to get his way out of it. He tried to freeze the assassins sitting across from him, but he found that his powers weren't working."

Erasmus chuckled. "Don't bother. You'll find that your mind is under a trance that keeps it from using your powers. All three of you are."

"What the hell do you want with us?" Spider-Man demanded.

"The Hulk did not call our your names by accident," Erasmus said, with a marveling look in his eyes. Bobby could tell he was excited about something. "You three are part of a prophecy that clearly explains that you're three pieces of a Trinity that can grant incredible powers to the one who knows how to unlock them. That would be my master, who I'm taking you to."

A million questions exploded into Bobby's mind, but he knew that most of them were pretty unsafe to ask in this situation. But from the information he just gathered, he grew very nervous.

"How do you know these Trinity pieces that were prophesized are talking about us?" Spider-Man asked, and judging by the tone of his voice, he seemed to comprehend everything Erasmus was saying perfectly.

"The Hulk is the man that has been prophesized to be the one who shall spell out those names while under an involuntarily trance," Erasmus explained. "Everything that the prophecy has stated has come to pass, and we would be missing out on much to not take advantage of the situation."

Bobby felt one of the worst feelings of his life. It topped even the nervous, paranoid-like sense he got when he first discovered he was a mutant, which was bad enough. But now he's part of something even bigger. It was all too much for him to handle.

"Why are these two here?" Spider-Man asked, nudging his head towards Elektra and the Punisher. He didn't seem to be reluctant to ask Erasmus questions. Bobby himself had the fear that they would anger Erasmus, but Spider-Man apparently didn't have that problem.

"These two are working for us," Erasmus said. "Elektra here was sent by the Kingpin, who has been an invaluable part of this operation. The Punisher was sent by my master, the Leader of our organization who has the power to order individuals around using mind control over telephones."

It was coming to Bobby slowly, but it seemed to all start making sense now. This is why Hawkeye had shown up at the mansion. And the Leader was who called Storm to learn two of the names of the Trinity.

A frightening sensation hit Bobby as he realized that Erasmus's master was probably about to accomplish what he had set out to do.

"Don't have such an uneasy look on your face, Mr. Drake," Erasmus said with a hint of comfort. "After all, if we're lucky, your role in this might not even require us to sacrifice your life." He then began laughing as if he had just told a hilarious joke.

"You damn people..." Bobby began, taking a risk. "You're sick and twisted..."

"And ultimately successful," Erasmus said, continuing to laugh sinisterly.

However, Bobby, nor Erasmus or anyone else had been aware of the Wasp, who had just slipped out the helicopter, prepared to expose all of the information she had just heard.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	8. Chapter 8

**ULTIMATE MELEE   
CHAPTER 8**

Xavier looked more relaxed than before, but his breathing grew heavier.

"Professor, are you sure you're alright?" Kitty asked.

"...Yes....they're...gone..." Xavier managed to say.

Xavier could see in his mind that the ordeal was over. His telepathy had been violently mixed up during the battle due to the hectic signals coming from the minds of those that had manipulated by the phone calls, and he could barely keep track of anything that was going on.

His powers returned to him only to find that it was all over. Except for one thing.

"Kitty..." the professor gasped.

"What is it?!" Kitty answered, worried about the professor's well being.

"Get him...Hawkeye...has...escaped..."

* * *

Nick Fury was sitting in the desk of his office, keeping updated on the status of the Ultimates through his laptop, when his phone rang.

He looked at it hesitantly. Since the other day when he couldn't recall anything that happened after a phone call, he didn't trust phones very much again.

But surely something like that could happen twice to him, he thought.

His hand reached for the phone, and he almost touched it before he quickly withdrew his hand and backed away from it.

"#&$ it," he whispered to himself. "If anybody needs to talk to me, there's other ways of doing it."

Two minutes later, Dr. Pym burst through his office doors and rushed into the office.

"Have you seen what's going on?!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah..." Fury said, with much worry and disappointment in his voice. "Even with those mind-control blockers, they've all been taken down."

"We might still stand a chance!" Hank said excitedly, with the biggest smile on his face that Nick had ever seen. "Take a look at this." He ran around to Nick's side of the desk, and standing next to Nick, he began typing something into the computer.

"Could there really be anything more important going on right now than this battle?" Nick asked, annoyed that Hank would interrupt something like that.

"Oh, believe me Nick, this may very well become a part of the battle," Hank replied, with a sense of urgency in his voice.

What came up on the screen on Nick's laptop was a map of the northeastern region of the U.S., and the current positions of the Ultimates. Almost all of the Ultimates were gathered at the Xavier mansion, and the dots that displayed their names overlapped each other.

But instead of zooming into the region of the X-Men's headquarters to get a more accurate look at the positions of the Ultimates, Hank zoomed out, showing the entire northwestern hemisphere of the world.

Hank pointed toward the western Atlantic Ocean, where a dot was displayed, labeled "Thor."

"He's supposed to be in Europe," Nick said, surprised, but not shocked.

"But he's not," Hank said, with triumphant laughter. "He's coming here. Thor's coming to help us."

* * *

Hawkeye slammed open the front doors of the mansion and ran out, sprinting faster than he had ever had before, clutching his bow in his right hand, and a sack of arrows already tied around his waist. He had to wake up the other Ultimates.

"Stop right there!" the young mutant Hawkeye recognized as Kitty Pryde, yelled right after she came out of one of the mansion's walls.

Hawkeye pulled out an arrow and prepared to shoot at Kitty.

"That won't help you," Kitty warned, running towards him.

Hawkeye, as fast as he could, aimed and fired the bow.

To his horror, it went right through her, and she showed no signs of being hurt by it. This girl was hollow.

This meant trouble.

As she leapt at him, Hawkeye expected her to go right through him, but she caught him off-guard as she slammed him right to the ground, holding him down by his wrists.

But Hawkeye, being a full-grown man and a much stronger person, simply used his legs to flip her over, and before she knew it, he was on top of her, holding her down by her wrists.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!" he yelled at her. He let go of one of her wrists and used that free hand to grab her by the throat.

"...Please...let go..." she gagged.

"Hawkeye, stop!" he heard a familiar voice say. He didn't turn to look who it was, but suddenly, the Wasp flew right in front of him, and the shock of seeing her tiny form right in front of his face made him let go of Kitty.

Kitty gasped as she could breathe once more. She didn't attempt to go after Hawkeye again.

"Listen," Wasp said, facing Hawkeye with an urgent expression. "We have to wake up everybody. And I mean everybody; the X-Men and The Ultimates. There's something going on that's far more important than our little rivalry right now."

* * *

The helicopter landed on the roof of the Fisk Tower. There wasn't much flat space at the top to park on, but they had to make it work. There was no way two mutants, two assassins, a man dressed in a purple robe, and Spider-Man were about to walk into the building through the main entrance on the ground, for everyone on the streets to see.

Peter stepped out of the helicopter, and more men in purple robes immediately surrounded him, particularly some who were much bigger and stronger than Erasmus was. The bright sun, which was now fully out and lighting up the city of New York, did little comfort to Peter, who knew what he was facing in the building he was now standing on.

Geldoff and Iceman also exited the helicopter. Geldoff, who had just woken up, only remembering that he had just previously been shot, was bursting with confusion. "What is going on?" he asked.

"All will be explained to you soon, young boy," Erasmus, who had just come out of the helicopter after the Punisher and followed by Elektra, said.

Peter looked around. Men in robes were everywhere, completely blocking Peter's way of going anywhere except towards the roof entrance into the building.

Luckily, his mask hid the disappointment he had on his face. What he wished for was to jump off the roof, but there was no possibly way for him to make a safe landing anywhere without his powers.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. Of course! How could he have forgotten?

"Come, kid," Erasmus said, walking towards the door and looking over his shoulder at Peter. Everybody, including Bobby and Geldoff, were following; Peter was the only one straying behind. "We don't have all day."

"Oh, Erasmus, guess what?" Peter said in an amused tone. His confidence had returned. "I think that when you put that trance on me, you forgot to fit something into your calculations."

Peter turned around away from Erasmus and the direction of the roof entrance and towards a blockade of purple-robed guards that were blocking the edge of the roof.

With both hands, Peter suddenly blasted out web from his web shooters, which were specially made by himself, and did not come as part of the powers that were currently disabled.

The webs caught onto several of the guards, and with a violent jerk of his arms, Peter pushed them all away, clearing a path for himself, which he, running faster than he ever had before, rushed through.

"NO!" Peter could hear Erasmus scream. "GET HIM!"

Peter, dodging the bullets that the Punisher had shot, jumped off the roof and fired his web blasters off towards another building. They caught on and Peter began swinging away.

For the first time since Captain America had found him the previous evening, Peter was now free to go wherever he wanted.

But most importantly, he had escaped.

* * *

"Okay, let's recap: The reason the Hulk has been saying all of these names is because he's the Prophet, and Drake, Parker, and Geldoff are the pieces of the Trinity, which is supposed to unlock some great power? And now these strangers, who have been hypnotizing everybody to do things they would never do otherwise, have kidnapped all three of them?."

"That would be right, Mr. Stark," Professor Xavier confirmed.

All of the X-Men and Ultimates, and also a tamed and controlled Bruce Banner, fully healed by medication Beast had made, and their bullets removed, sat it the professor's office, discussing the events of the past two days. From the moment they had been brought into the mansion and had been treated, a truce was declared between the two teams, to not fight and argue, but instead, to finally spill out the answers to the mystery that had been set before them, and to work together to find a solution to these problems set before them. And they had to act quickly.

"A lot of trouble could have been avoided if you had just told us what really happened yesterday morning," Captain America said, staring at the face of Nick Fury, who was included in on the conversation through a display screen set up in Xavier's office.

"I must once again ask that you all forgive me," Fury said. "I really had no idea what was happening back then, and as stupid as I might have been, I thought the best solution to the problem was to clean it all up and pretend nothing had happened. You know, keep it quiet."

"And we really can't blame you for it," the professor said. "You did what was best for S.H.I.E.L.D., and you were not aware of the dangers that were yet to come. I must also apologize for blaming it all on you and acting so rashly."

"What needs to be forgotten," Tony Stark, who was wearing his Iron Man suit inside the office, said in voice full of wisdom, "are the differences we have faced previous. What needs to be done is for us to work together and focus on the task at hand. We have friends in danger and the world in potential jeopardy. What are we going to do about it all?"

"What else do you expect?" the Wasp, in fully-grown form, said. "I told you that the Kingpin is involved with all this, making the Fisk Tower a good place to set up headquarters for these guys. That's probably where they are. We need to march down there and open up a can of whoop-ass."

Mostly everybody laughed, but they knew that this was true.

"I agree," Cyclops said. "The best thing to do right now would be to take a direct approach. They don't know that we have this information. They shouldn't be expecting us."

"There is no other option," Xavier declared. "Time is running out. If we're going to do something, it has to be done immediately. X-Men, prepare the jet."

* * *

Erasmus, walking in a brisk pace, entered the Leader's chamber.

The chamber that had been built on the top-secret "Floor Negative One" of the Fisk Tower was a room unlike any other. Walking into it, you'd swear you were in an Indiana Jones-style adventure movie.

Only torches that were on the light brown walls of the room, giving you the impression that you were entering a tomb, lighted the room.

Towards the center of the room was a circular platform, composed of gold, which rose two feet off the ground. On the top of the surface of the platform were four circular "slots," which were basically holes in the surface that sank several inches into the ground, and were big enough in diameter for somebody to comfortably stand in. Three of the holes were connected by sapphires, which in the end, drew out a triangle, with the three slots serving as the corners. The fourth and final slot was in the inside center of the triangle.

The Leader was currently standing in the fourth slot. He was dressed in black robes and was holding the manuscript that had revealed the entire prophecy to his organization, and had started their entire plan for gaining the Trinity powers.

As the Leader saw Erasmus come in, he hid the manuscript, which was protected by a glass case, into his robes.

"My lord," Erasmus addressed. "We have dispatched our men, along with the Punisher, in search of Peter Parker. He should be captured soon."

"And what of Elektra?" the Leader inquired.

"She has the left building after finding about her employer's current lack of participation in our project," Erasmus answered. "She isn't expected to come back."

"And the two young men?"

"Iceman and Geldoff have been locked away in a room that, which I assure you, is heavily guarded and lacking a way out other than going through the guards, which those two boys have no way of doing."

"This better not fail," the Leader said strictly. "We have already met with unneeded complications to the plan, and if Parker is not captured, I will punish all those responsible to the failure of the plan. As I have told you, Erasmus, it needs to be completed by the end of the day, or all is lost. So do not fail me."

"Yes, my lord," Erasmus said mercifully, getting down on one knee and bowing. "Forgive me. I will work to the best of my ability to make sure that the Trinity powers are unlocked here in this chamber today."

"I would hope you do so, for your own sake," the Leader said, looking down on him with a threatening expression. "Now, leave at once and keep track of all further operations."

"At once, my lord," Erasmus said, getting up and leaving the chamber.

Once Erasmus was gone, the Leader pulled out the manuscript once more and examined it.

If this plan fails, he thought, they could always go with what was written on the other side of the manuscript, which he had not yet translated to the others.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	9. Chapter 9

**ULTIMATE MELEE  
CHAPTER 9**

When Peter had first learned how to sling across the city with his webs, it had almost come as a natural instinct to him. His ability to jump high and his enhanced reflexes gave him an advantage in keeping his cool up there.

Now, however, it felt like he was learning how to do it all over again. And with no powers, he felt like he was going to die flying in between buildings with nothing supporting him but his web. He dared not hit a wall.

He had just escaped Erasmus and the cult that had kept him against his will, and now the question arose: Where should he go?

Peter thought about the Ultimates. Surely they had no way of knowing that he was here, and the Xavier Institute was too far away, especially while he was web-slinging under dangerous circumstances such as these.

Then he suddenly remembered what had to be done.

Peter carefully began lowering towards the streets, and looking from below, people watched as the hero they knew as Spider-Man violently dropped down on to the ground, and tripped as he landed.

"Whoa…what the hell was that?"

Peter looked over at the teenage boy who said that, and he was shocked in disbelief at who it was.

The last person he expected to see today.

Kong.

"Yo, Spidey, something wrong with your landing?" Kong, who had always admired Spider-Man, asked.

Peter didn't quite know what to say except, "Hey, um, do you have any spare change?"

Seeming thrilled at the idea, Kong immediately reached into his pockets and pulled out half a handful of dimes, nickels, and quarters.

Other people who had also seen Peter had taken out camera phones and other devices to create evidence that they had met Spider-Man. Several teenage girls came over and asked him for his autograph.

This flattered Peter. After the bad criticism he had been getting lately, it was nice to know that he still had admirers.

"Here you go, dude," Kong said, putting the large amount of coins in Peter's hand. It was definitely more than he needed.

"Uh, yeah…I'm just going to make a phone call, so I don't need all of this," Peter told Kong.

"Doesn't matter, man, keep it all," Kong said, happy to have given his hero some help.

"Thanks," Peter said, and he began walking away until he spotted the nearest phone booth and went into it.

Making sure the people around him weren't watching too closely, Peter quickly dialed the number of the Parker residence.

Gwen was the one to answer. "Hello?" she said.

"Gwen, it's me, Peter-"

"Dude! Where the hell have you been?!"

"It's a long story. Listen, I can't talk long, so I just want you to tell Aunt May that I'm not going to be coming back soon. Just tell her…tell her not to expect me for the rest of the day."

Gwen seemed dumbfounded. "What kind of excuse am I supposed to make?"

"I don't care!" Peter said impatiently. "Tell her I'm at the library or something!" And before Gwen could respond, Peter quickly added, "I can't talk right now. I really gotta go." He then hung up.

Peter banged his head against the phone booth's wall. This was bad. Really bad.

Suddenly, Peter looked up into the sky and saw Thor, one of the two Ultimates he hadn't met up with these last 12 hours, fly by at an alarmingly quick speed.

"Thank God," Peter said, rushing out of the phone booth.

"Hey, Thor!" Peter yelled quickly, hoping to catch the thunder god's attention.

But Thor took no notice of Peter or anyone else who happened to be yelling his name in the crowded streets below him.

However, Peter did manage to catch someone's attention.

"Oh, $#&," Peter whispered, as he watched three of the purple-robed men coming towards him. Flying towards him, in fact.

They had found him.

* * *

"Pym was right," Hawkeye confirmed. "Thor's just shown up on the radar. His course is going to collide with ours in a few minutes."

"Something doesn't feel right about this," Logan suspected. "Fury said that he couldn't contact Thor even after he had entered the U.S. And now Thor just knows where to find us right away, especially on a plane with a cloaking device thingie?"

Several of the Ultimates and the X-Men were now aboard the jet. Xavier and Fury had agreed that it was probably best not to send everyone to the Fisk Towers, and keep most of the X-Men at the mansion, send several of the Ultimates back to the Triskelion along with Banner, and have the rest go on the mission.

The team that was now aboard the jet consisted of Captain America, Hawkeye, Logan, Cyclops, Colossus, and Storm, with Iron Man flying alongside them outside the jet.

"Well, Logan," Captain America began explaining. "While most of S.H.I.E.L.D. believes Thor is nothing more than a former mental patient under the belief that he is a god, we are all convinced that he definitely has some kind of special ability; something concerning reading others' minds. This may explain how he knows our exact location."

But Logan was not convinced. "You think there's any chance that-"

"Whoa," Hawkeye interrupted.

Everybody turned to look at him.

"I'm looking at the radar right now and it looks like Thor has just dramatically accelerated his speed," Hawkeye said. "Almost as if he's getting ready to ram into us…"

"Then it might just be possible…" Cyclops predicted. "Thor could be under the influence of one of those phone calls."

"Tony, are you listening to this?" Hawkeye addressed to the plane's radio.

"Yeah," Tony replied from outside the jet. "I'll fly ahead a little. If Thor really is going to attack us, I'll distract him long enough for you guys to get away from him."

"You can't do that!" Captain America criticized, sitting down in the chair next to Hawkeye's. "If he's attacking us, then we're all going to fight back!"

"Thor is not the main priority here, Steve," said Tony. "Your job is to rescue the three little minors. If there's any danger, let me deal with Thor."

"Negative, Tony!" Cap exclaimed. "I am not going to go along with this!"

"Neither am I," Storm, who was walking towards one of the jet's exit doors, said. "You'll need someone who can fly and counterattack Thor's lightning."  
And with that, Storm opened the door and jumped out into the vast sky.

"You know," Cap said. "I always thought parachutes were for girls, but she's proved me wrong."

A moment later, Tony finally said over the radio transmitter, "I see him! Thor is approaching!"

Looking out through the front window, Cap and the others could see Iron Man a couple hundred feet in front of the jet, with Thor coming in ahead from a further distance. He was far away, but he was visible. Storm had also flown ahead towards Iron Man and Thor.

As Thor got closer, Cyclops said, "I don't mean to go all Star Wars on you guys, but I have a bad feeling about this."

"Quiet," Colossus said softly. "Thor might be attacking any-"

Suddenly, a large thunderbolt came out of nowhere, and appeared to hit Iron Man.

"Tony!" Captain America cried out. "Are you okay?!"

Tony, who was out in the Iron Man suit, still flying, but badly shook up about the hit, said, "I'll deal with him! Lower your altitude! GET OUT OF HERE!"  
Hawkeye immediately obeyed Tony's order and made a quick shift in course down towards the city.

At the moment, Hawkeye had a sudden urge to get out of the jet and help Storm and Iron Man. After all, his arrows would surely affect Thor, he thought.

"Alright, let's get down to business," Captain America said, turning back to look at the three remaining X-Men. "Grab some parachutes, because we'll be making the jump down to the Fisk Towers in a matter of moments. Cyclops will remain, since we need someone to land the jet."

"Why does it have to be me?" Cyclops asked.

"Well," Captain America began to explain, "do you really trust anyone else in here to do it?"

Cyclops looked around at the other men in the room. "Point proven," he said as he looked back at Cap. "But where am I supposed to land it?"

"Right on the streets outside of the building," Cap replied. "Where else?"

* * *

"CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!" Peter continually screamed as he ran from the flying robed-men, occasionally turning around to shoot web at them to slow them down.

He had attempted to swing away, but lacking his super-powers, he was unable to achieve a proper jumping start, which he needed if he was going to start web-slinging right from the streets.

There was only one thing he could do.

He immediately entered the nearest building, an apartment complex, and began running up the stairs.

While going up the building, he did not dare to look down to see if the men hunting him were following him. His mind was completely focused on getting up the stairs, no matter what.

When he reached the top floor, he opened a door leading to the roof of the building.

"Perfect," he whispered to himself as he ran towards the edge of the roof. He was high enough to swing once again.

He heard a large rumbling of thunder out into the distance. He couldn't let weather conditions stop him. He had to get out of New York.

Suddenly, the three robed men rose from the side of the building and right onto the edge of the roof.

Peter stopped dead. How could I be so stupid, he thought.

The man in between the other two said, "We've found you, Parker. I never would have guessed it was you who's been flying around as Spider-Man all this time, right under my very nose." He had a very amused and proud voice.

And also a very familiar voice.

Suddenly, the man raised his left hand, which revealed to be holding a gun similar to the one the Punisher had.

There was no spider-sense to help Peter out this time as the man fired the gun, and the bullet jerked into Peter's stomach.

It's paralyzing me, Peter thought, as he attempted to walk backwards, away from the hunters. Fight it, he thought, fight it, fight, figh-

Before Peter could make another movement, he passed out.

* * *

It was unbearable.

Thor was too strong.

"KILL THE ULTIMATES!" he roared every single time he fired off some lighting at Storm and Iron Man.

"Upload Thor file," Tony said to his transmitter. "We need to take this guy out."

"Just a second…" the voice over the radio said. After a short pause, it announced, "Tony, I'm sorry, but we have no Thor file."

"You're kidding me!" Tony yelled as he dodged one of Thor's lightning attacks.

"What am I supposed to do?!"

"Fire off any random unspecified type of laser."

Tony did so, and the beam hit Thor right in the forehead, leaving the Norse god to yell in pain.

Without much accuracy, Thor let off more lightning, this time in such a rage, that it was flying everywhere.

Tony dodged each one.

Unfortunately, Storm didn't.

She was knocked out, and began falling down towards the city…

* * *

Erasmus and the Leader walked side-by-side through the lobby of the building, towards the door.

Three members of their organization, who all came in carrying the unconscious Spider-Man, and the Punisher followed them, immediately met them.

"So, which one of you did it?" Erasmus asked curiously.

"It was me," one of the robed men said. "I took out Parker."

"I see," Erasmus said. "I don't suppose we have any more use for the Punisher over here."

"I think we do," the robed man said. "You see, on our way back, we spotted a jet flying overhead. It looks like the one the X-Men use. I think they found us."

"How could they possibly have figured it out?" Erasmus asked, shocked.

"Never mind that," the Leader said quickly. "We need to unlock the Trinity powers, now that we successfully have all the pieces." He started walking towards the elevator. "To the chambers, immediately! Leave the Punisher to guard this floor!"

The members obeyed, and carried Spider-Man's body into the elevator. Erasmus ordered the Punisher to keep guard in the lobby and fire on will at the Ultimates should they appear. Erasmus then entered the elevator as well.

As soon as the door shut and they were all inside, the Leader pressed his thumb into a plate by the elevator's buttons.

A small beeping noise followed, and then a soft, female, computerized voice said, "Identification confirmed. Restricted floors unlocked. Please state your destination."

"Floor Negative One," the Leader said loud and clear.

"Now transporting," the voice confirmed, and the elevator began moving.

As the men waited to arrive on their specified floor, the robed man who had defeated Spider-Man broke the silence. He said, "Tell me, master, have I done well?"

The Leader thought of the young man, and knew how unreliable and obnoxious he could be. He was one of the lower-rank members. But this one successful act had atoned for all of that.

"Yes, young one," the Leader replied. "You have done very well, Flash."

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	10. Chapter 10

**ULTIMATE MELEE  
CHAPTER 10**

"Aaaaaaaaaand...GO!"

All at once, Captain America, Logan, Hawkeye, and Colossus (in his steel form) just out of the jet.

"Did I mention that this was my favorite part of the job!" Hawkeye yelled over the loud sounds of the wind.

Rain had begun to fall as the four men dropped down towards the street.

People from above watched, some terrified, at the jet, which was casually making its way through downtown Manhattan. Normally, this would be considered highly illegal, but as Captain America had said, "It's good to have the government on your side."

Captain America landed on the sidewalk in a perfect pose, showing no discomfort. Logan had landed on his back, but his pain quickly healed as he stood up. Hawkeye had fired a grappling hook at a nearby streetlight post, causing him to not land on the pavement until he voluntarily let go of the hook and landed casually. Colossus had landed without recoil, but while he did so, the pavement he had dropped on had crushed under his weight.

"Let's not do that again," Logan said, although everyone seemed to disagree.

"You think they're expecting us?" Hawkeye said, facing the front door of the Fisk Tower.

"They have to be," Cap said. "After all, who's not going to notice that black jet flying overhead?"

"The police certainly have," Colossus said, looking back.

All the others turned around and saw what seemed to be dozens of NYPD and FBI cars and helicopters arriving at the scene. Sirens filled the air, and with the mixture of rain, everyone who was watching began to see signs of chaos and panic emerging.

"What on God's earth is happening here?!" one of policeman running towards the party exclaimed.

"Stand back, officer," Hawkeye, motioning his hands up to tell all the authorities to keep way. "This is a S.H.I.E.L.D. priority."

"Is that why you've got the X-Men with you?!" the officer shouted.

SNIKT! "You got a problem with mutants taking care of this, bub?" Logan threatened.

"Uh…no…I'm just…" The officer stepped back nervously. "I'm just gonna step back and let you guys handle this. Go ahead."

"In several minutes," Captain America said. "You're going to see that black jet fly over here again. Let it land. No matter what happens, do not shoot it."

"Yes, sir," the now unconfident police officer said.

Logan, Colossus, Hawkeye, and Cap turned back to look at the building.

"You guys ready?" Logan asked.

It was a rhetorical question.

They rushed towards the doors.

* * *

Bobby stood there on one of the slots of the platform in the Leader's chamber, with his legs chained there so he couldn't move away, quietly waiting.

He occasionally glanced over at Geldoff, also chained to one of the holes on the platform, who was nowhere near as silent as he was.

Geldoff frequently kept mumbling words of hatred and disgust. "I swear, if we ever get out of here, I shall kill that horrible woman who tricked me into coming here. That assassin…what was her name again? Was it…yes, Elektra. That was her name. Elektra. That bitch will die."

Bobby ignored Geldoff's statements, and kept thinking about how Peter had escaped. Without Peter, the Leader would have no possible way of achieving his plan. Bobby prayed that Parker had found his way to the X-Men or the Ultimates.

Geldoff's speech was starting to get unavoidably loud. "Those damn Greeks…you can never trust them."

"What?" Bobby said, looking at Geldoff with confusion. "What do the Greeks have to do with this?"

"You heard the names, did you not?" Geldoff answered. "For starters, Elektra. That's Greek right there. And before she left, Elektra addressed that so-called 'leader' as Cyrek. And the name of the man that brought us here on the helicopter is Erasmus. These are all Greek names. This all has to be some kind of cult that began in their country."

"Interesting…" Bobby said as he looked away, thinking about this for a moment.

Suddenly, the door to the chamber opened and Bobby's worst fear at the moment came to pass. The Leader and Erasmus walked in, followed by three other members of the organization, with one of them carrying Spider-Man.

"Oh $#(," Bobby said silently.

"Indeed, Mr. Drake," the Leader said in a self-satisfied tone. "Luck seems to have run out on you, has it not?"

"You'll never get away with this," Bobby said menacingly. "The Ultimates, the X-Men, they'll all find you and they'll have Colossus split open your head with his bare hands!"

The Leader chucked at Bobby's remark. "You really think so, do you, boy? Well, let me tell you something. After this power extraction, I can promise you that I will be nothing short of invincible. What mutants are to humans, I will be to mutants; terrifying and dangerous."

The three servants climbed up onto the platform, and Parker was awakened only to realize that his legs were being chained to one of the platforms, with his hands handcuffed behind his back.

"Comfortable?" the Leader asked Spider-Man. "You see, we couldn't risk you using those little gadgets of yours again to escape. Although, I must admit, they are a pretty ingenious invention."

Peter said nothing.

"Excellent," the Leader said softly, staring contently at the surface of the platform. "All the corner slots of the triangle are full. The Trinity is in its place. All that remains now is the slot in the center of the triangle…the one that's reserved for myself."

Bobby's stress had made him begun sweating more than he ever had in his life. He was about to witness the triumph of a horrible villain, and none of the other X-Men were there to prevent it from happening.

"Stand back, my loyal followers," The Leader proudly said, and the four other members of the organization backed away towards the walls. "You, out of all of my fellow believers of the ancient prophecy, have the privilege of witnessing the birth of our great legacy!"

The Leader climbed up to the surface of the platform and stepped onto the center slot.

He turned back and faced his followers, who were all down on one knee in honor of their master.

Bobby couldn't bear to watch, but it seemed like it was impossible to blink. The thrill and panic going through him was of a level that he had rarely ever felt before. In a way, it was intoxicating.

The Leader raised his arms into the air, closed his eyes, and yelled, "ARISE, FORCES THAT BE, AND GRANT ME POWER!"

All four slots on the platform erupted with a bright glow.

* * *

As soon as Logan, Colossus, Captain America, and Hawkeye entered the lobby of the building, they were immediately met by at least 50 of the organization members, all with guns aimed at the four intruders who had come in. Standing behind the army of the followers was the Punisher, with his guns ready as well.

The organization members wore long purple robes, with hoods on at the top, and a thin black layer of clothing concealing the lower parts of their faces. Only their eyes were visible to anyone looking at them, and at the moment, all the eyes had angry expressions.

No time was wasted. Bullets began flying through the air.

Logan and Colossus began running towards the enemies; Logan was taking the bullets, ignoring the pain that would later be gone due to his healing factor, and Colossus, being bulletproof, felt no pain at all.

"Run outta tranquilizers, have you?!" Logan yelled as he jumped at a small group of them, with his claws ready, and tearing away at them. "Too bad…" He stabbed one of the followers in the eyes, leaving the man screaming with unimaginable pain. "…'cause that was your only decent weapon!"

Colossus had also begun fighting the organization members, by punching each of his targets one-by-one, sending every one of them flying across the room.

Hawkeye had been narrowly dodging all the bullets that were flying at him, thanks to his clever tactic of hiding behind Captain America and his raised shield. While Hawkeye rapidly fired arrows at the enemies in the room, Cap had flung his shield out like a boomerang, and it knocked down several of the organization members until it flew back to him.

It wasn't long before the heroes noticed that the organization members had stopped firing bullets, and had switched to shooting yellow laser blasts from their hands. But it didn't help them much. The Ultimates and X-Men were still prevailing.

Pretty soon, all of the organization members were down on the ground, moaning with injuries, and submitting to defeat. There was only one enemy still left standing.

The Punisher.

"Don't come any closer," he said, walking towards the four with his guns aimed. He was guarding a narrow hallway, with an elevator door at the end.

"Listen," Hawkeye quietly told the others. "Captain America, you and Colossus go on ahead. Wolverine and I will deal with the Terminator here."

Everyone agreed, and they all charged towards the Punisher, who had began shooting at them. Hawkeye and Logan stood their ground and dodged the bullets, while Colossus and Cap ran through either sides the Punisher, and toward the elevator.

The Punisher quickly turned around to shoot the two trespassers, but Logan immediately leaped at him and delivered him a nice kick to the head, sending the Punisher flying a few feet and landing on the ground. He immediately got up, and faced Logan, ready for a full confrontation.

Meanwhile, Captain America and Colossus pressed the button next to the elevator, and in a matter of seconds, the door opened up and they rushed in. They quickly shut it as soon as they were both inside.

"Prepare to take a nice shot at this guy with that fancy bow of yours," Logan said to Hawkeye, who was standing not too far behind him. "I'll keep him distracted." Logan tightened his fists and he and the Punisher were staring at each other with a deadly tension.

In what appeared to be the exact same instant, they both leaped at each other. The Punisher fired his gun, and Logan then pulled off one of the most miraculous things he had done in recent memory. With a swift horizontal movement of his arm, his claws intercepted the bullet the Punisher had fired, and sent it flying towards the side.

Logan then collided with the Punisher, and stabbed him in the chest with his claws.

The Punisher yelled out a horrible noise that consisted of groaning and screaming. He turned around, trying to weakly and slowly walk away.

Logan pulled his claws out of the Punisher's ribcage, and moved aside, giving Hawkeye space to finish the job.

Hawkeye immediately released and arrow from his bow, which hit the Punisher right in the back of his neck.

He fell down.

"We make a good team," Hawkeye told Logan a few seconds after the body had hit the floor.

Logan scoffed. "If it had been me giving the final blow, he would be dead."

"That's not our objective," Hawkeye said, walking towards the Punisher's unconscious body. "We need information from these guys, which is why we now have to stay here and make sure none of them get away."

"Are you saying we're done with ass-kicking for now?" Logan asked, not thrilled at the idea.

"I am," Hawkeye replied. "But you're free to go back up there into the sky and wrestle Thor if you want."

"You know what?" Logan said in a funny, sarcastic voice that did not suit him at all. "That sounds fun, but I think I'll stay here."

Hawkeye chucked. "Glad to see you have some sense."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Logan said, irritated.

"Well, come on, you obviously couldn't take Thor-"

"You wanna bet?" Logan began to walk away towards the exit door. "I'll go knock his lights out right now."

"Wolverine, you can't do that! Not at a time like this!"

But Hawkeye's words were not listened to.

As Logan got out the building, he began proceeding down the steps outside the entrance, when he suddenly noticed that the police officers gathered out there were all staring up above Logan.

Before Logan could look up, he was violently hit in the head, and his face hit the ground pavement.

It turned out that a person had fallen on him.

"Thanks, Logan," Storm said, smiling. "You broke my fall."

* * *

Inside the elevator, Captain America and Colossus were suddenly faced with an unexpected challenge.

"Uh…" Colossus said. "Which floor do we go to?"

"Quiet," Captain America ordered. "Can you hear something?"

Colossus listened, and he did in fact hear a voice from a distance faintly say, "...grant me power."

"It's coming from below," Colossus said.

"How can that be possible?" Captain America asked. "We're on the bottom floor."

"Then there's only one way to get down there," Colossus said, putting his lands together into a large fist. "We smash through."

He then hammered the bottom the elevator floor, and a hole brought through the steel. Colossus lifted up the edges of the steel to make the hole bigger.

He looked at Captain America and said, "After you."

* * *

The Leader stood there on the platform feeling like energy was practically rising out of the ground.

Soon it will reach me, he thought, and I will be the most terrible force in the world.

Suddenly, the Leader heard some kind of smashing noise coming from outside the chamber. A crushing sound of destruction.

The Leader opened his eyes to find that the chamber door had been opened, and coming into the room was Captain America, followed by Colossus. The Leader's hope felt shattered as Captain America had at once launched his shield, and it flung it forward.

The shield rammed right into the Leader's stomach, sending him flying of the platform.

The Leader has suddenly ceased to feel the energy coming toward him. "NOOOO!!!!" he screamed. The energy extraction had been interrupted almost as soon as it had started. I was so close, he thought. So close to success.

He could only watch as the two intruders entered the room, and began attacking the Leader's four followers in there.

Captain America had grabbed Erasmus, and jerked him to the wall by his throat, leaving him gacking. Colossus had grabbed two of the others, each with one arm, and began to continually smack them into each other.

The Leader tried to get up, but it was useless. The impact of the shield had made most of his lower body go numb.

Then something happened The Leader had not imagined, and could not prevent. The one follower that was not being attacked by the intruders, Flash Thompson, had run up onto the platform.

Flash proceeded towards the center slot.

** TO BE CONTINUED...**


	11. Chapter 11

**ULTIMATE MELEE  
CHAPTER 11**

The police that surrounded the building had cleared enough room on the streets in front of the Fisk Tower for Cyclops to land the jet. People were watching overhead as the big, great, black machine that had been flying around downtown had finally set foot down on the pavement, and one of the X-Men emerged from it.

"Can you please explain to us what's going on here?" one of the FBI agents that approached Cyclops as he got out of the jet asked. "Where is S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Listen," Cyclops said quickly, "Thor is currently under influence that is messing with his head, and he and Iron Man are battling it out above. Until we're sure that Thor has been cleared from the air, all S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopters and jets can do is circle around the city, waiting for him to go away!"

"Well, do something about him, then!" the FBI agent demanded. "Captain America and a few others just went into this building, and we have no idea why! This isn't our department. S.H.I.E.L.D has to handle this, not us. So go take care of Thor!"

"How the hell do you expect me to do that?!" Cyclops asked, enraged.

"I'll fly you up there," Storm, who had just emerged from the crowd of cars and police officers, said. Logan followed closely behind her. He was dripping blood and full of bullet marks.

"Logan, what happened to you?" Cyclops asked, rushing forward to meet with them.

"This ain't the time to explain," Logan said. "Storm says Iron Man isn't doing so hot up there. So we need you to fire up those old optic blasts of yours."

"Alright, but if we're going to do this, we have to do it quickly," Cyclops decided. "Iron Man won't last up there forever. Storm?"

Storm walked behind Cyclops and grabbed him around the waist.

"Wish us luck," Storm said.

Together, they began floating, and as her speed increased, they quickly launched up into the air.

* * *

It was the greatest feeling Flash had ever felt. A wonderful sensation of energy was flooding out of the ground and onto his body. He sensed himself becoming stronger in every single way, and incredible feelings of warmth and power settling in his arms and legs.

"What are you doing, foolish boy?!" The Leader, who was watching the young man Flash Thompson step onto the center slot of the platform, yelled in fury. But that had just about drained all of his strength, and he then passed out.

Captain America and Colossus also noticed this happening, and they had abandoned their duty of fighting The Leader's followers and had begun running up towards the platform.

Time to put these energies to the test, Flash thought. Even as the energy extraction was occurring, Flash raised his arms towards the two attackers, and fired off laser blasts from his arms just as he had always done since he joined the organization.

Only this time, the laser blasts were at least five times as powerful as his old powers were that he got when he joined the organization, and as Colossus and Captain America were hit by the laser blasts, they were sent flying into the air.

They crashed on the walls and sunk to the floor, defeated.

"Incredible!" Flash yelled triumphantly.

Suddenly, Flash felt the energy coming towards him starting to die down. The energy extraction was ended.

Pretty soon, it stopped altogether, and Flash felt that it was completed.

The prophecy was fulfilled.

Flash looked around at the three other teenagers surrounding him, who had all been temporarily drained of their strength, and had dropped to the ground, asleep. He particularly looked at Spider-Man. Peter Parker. One of the most obnoxious aspects of his life.

Oh, how Flash wanted to kill Parker right then and there.

But no, he thought. Flash would deal with him another day, when the two of them were alone.

Flash's hood and cloth had concealed his face, so Parker had no way of knowing that Flash was even here today, or of his involvement with this organization.

But now, it was time to get out of here.

However, just before Flash prepared to make his dramatic exit, he was interrupted.

"You disobedient traitor!" Erasmus spat, pointing his trembling finger at Flash. He and Flash were now the only two conscious people in the chamber. "That power was for our master only!"

"Not anymore," Flash said in a taunting tone. "You seriously thought I joined you guys because I was interested in what you stood for? Never. It was power. It was always about power. And now I have it."

Just then, Flash tested out another portion of his new powers. He formed a baseball-sized fireball in his hand.

He smirked. "What do you think, Erasmus? How many special abilities will I discover?"

Erasmus said nothing, completely in shock of everything that had just gone wrong.

Flash flung the fireball at one of the corners of the chamber's ceiling. A loud explosion occurred, and a huge chunk of bricks had been vaporized, leaving a hole there.

Flash looked back at Erasmus, and with one last grin, he said, "See ya later!"

With unbelievable speed, Flash darted off the floor and flew through the hole, which led back into the building's lobby.

Flying through the lobby, Flash zoomed passed Hawkeye, and punched him with high intensity.

Flash heard a loud thud behind him as Hawkeye dropped to the ground.

He flew through the front doors, and entered the streets, which were flooding with cops.

Flash floated still in the air for a moment, as they all watched him.

"Remain where you are!" one of the cops yelled over a megaphone. "Put your hands in the air, and drop down onto the ground.

Flash grinned. That was a demand that he couldn't fulfill.

He resumed flying, and with speed faster than ever before, he flew towards the sky. None of the bullets that the police fired even came close to him.

Logan watched down from the streets as the purple-robed man flew away. "Damnit, they actually did it…we failed."

The one who had gained the powers of the Trinity had succeeded, and he was now gone.

* * *

Erasmus awakened the two other followers that had been knocked out by Colossus. Once they were up, all three of them ran towards their master.

"My lord, are you awake?" Erasmus asked.

The Leader groaned, and with eyes closed, said, "What happened? Did the boy get the powers?"

"Yes, my lord," Erasmus replied glumly. "I'm terribly sorry."

"Where are we right now?" The Leader mumbled.

"We're still inside the chamber," Erasmus said. "Captain America and Colossus have been knocked out. I can hear sirens coming from outside. S.H.I.E.L.D. will be here soon.

"Then get us all out of here," The Leader ordered. "We can't let them capture us. There's more to be done."

"At once, my lord," Erasmus obeyed. He picked up his master and with the two followers right behind him, they all flew up through the hole that Flash had created, and into the lobby of the building.

Erasmus saw that the police had not entered the building yet, and none of the X-Men or Ultimates were there either, with the exception of Hawkeye, who was lying seemingly unconscious close to the door.

Dozens of the followers were sprawled over the floor, some of them beginning to awaked and stand up, including the Punisher.

"Get up, you lazy fools!" Erasmus shouted. "We must leave this place before we are all arrested!"

That got them going. Immediately, all of the followers got up off the ground and awaited further orders.

"We can't go out the front doors," Erasmus decided. "We'll have to go up the stairs and leave through the roof. Does everybody still have control over their flying abilities?"

They all muttered in agreement.

"Excellent! Up the stairs! Now!"

At once, all of the followers ran towards the stairs, some carrying the ones who were too injured to go on their own, and began flying up the stairway.

Suddenly, Hawkeye awakened and noticed this happening. He grabbed for his bow, which was laying a mere few feet away from him.

Erasmus, supporting his master and his weak condition, was the last one to head towards the stairway.

Hawkeye quietly prepared an arrow and aimed his bow at Erasmus. But this proved to be extremely hard. He was drowsy, and lying on the ground was not the best way to set up his target.

But this was his only chance.

He fired the arrow at Erasmus's back.

It didn't hit Erasmus.

But it did hit the Leader.

"AHH! What was that?!" the Leader groaned in pain, dropping to the ground.

Erasmus turned to find that Hawkeye was awake, and he was the one who had shot the arrow.

"There's more where that came from," Hawkeye said, reaching for his sack of arrows.

Erasmus quickly bent down to pick up his master. "Come, my lord, I must get you out of here."

"No, Erasmus," the Leader answered. "It's no use. I'm slowing you down. You have to go on without me."

"But my lord-"

"You must lead the men now, Erasmus," The Leader declared. He reached into his robes and pulled out the manuscript, still sealed in its glass case. "Take it. You must translate it further. You'll find all the tools you need to do so in my files. The password is 'hermanubis'. Go, Erasmus! Go now!"

Reluctantly, Erasmus obeyed, and took the manuscript. Before he stood up, he declared. "You will rejoin us again, my lord. I promise you that."

Then he turned towards and shot a laser blast from his hand. It hit Hawkeye's wrist, and the archer dropped his bow before he could fire another arrow towards Erasmus.

Before Hawkeye got another opportunity to pick up his bow, Erasmus quickly dashed away, and began flying up the staircase frantically.

"I won't fail you, master," he whispered as he made his way up the building. "I will get you out of here." But at the same time, he was greedily thrilled at the promotion he had just received.

* * *

Cyclops and Storm soon came high enough into the sky to get a perfect distance close enough to Thor to make the shot.

They also saw Iron Man, who was frantically dodging Thor's thunderbolts, with not opportunity to fight back. He wasn't going to win this.

"Do it," Storm told Cyclops.

At once, Cyclops pressed the button on his headset to fire the optic blast at Thor.

The stream of red laser erupted from his eyes, and Thor was not even aware of it coming his away.

That is, until it hit him.

Right in the crotch.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed in terror. It was the loudest noise they had ever heard Thor make.

"Now, Tony!" Cyclops yelled to Iron Man.

Iron Man flew rapidly towards Thor, and without hesitation, fired off several laser bullets.

All the bullets hit Thor in various places, and pretty soon, he was unconscious and beginning to stop floating and he started falling down.

Iron Man made a quickly turn down towards Thor, and with a fast swoop, grabbed him and saved him from falling.

As soon as he did so, he signaled his radio and said, "Iron Man to S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man to S.H.I.E.L.D. Do you copy? Over."

"We hear you loud and clear, Tony," Nick Fury's voice said over the radio. "What's the current situation?"

"Thor is down," Tony said, laughing triumphantly. "It is now safe to enter the city."

Tony heard Nick Fury's proud voice say, "Good job, Tony. We're heading towards the building now. E.T.A.: two minutes. Over."

"We did it!" Storm, still carrying Cyclops, cheered. "Now can we please get back down there? Scott weighs a ton."

They all laughed, and just as they began descending, they suddenly noticed dozens of figures start flying up from the roof of the Fisk Tower.

"That's them," Cyclops said. "The people behind this. It has to be."

"They can all fly," Storm said, astonished.

The three of them watched as the army of cloaked figures started rapidly flying away from the building like a flock of geese.

"They're trying to get away," Tony said, worried. "I can't let that happen! We have to find out everything they know! I'm going after them." He dropped Thor into Storm's arms.

"Hey!" she objected. "I can't carry these two!"

"Just get down there!" Tony ordered.

Without a word, Storm began quickly dropping down towards the streets surrounding the building.

Meanwhile, Iron Man flew in pursuit of the army of cloaked men, to bring them to justice and to finally have all the questions answered that were still unclear.

And from not too far behind him, the young ill-intentioned Flash Thompson followed.

**TO BE CONCLUDED... **


	12. Chapter 12

**ULTIMATE MELEE  
CHAPTER 12**

Iron Man's flight towards the army of cloaked men was violently interrupted when he felt a heavy impact hit the jets on his legs.

He felt the suit lose speed. Energy was being drained.

Tony checked his power status. It had dropped dramatically. There almost wasn't enough to make it down on the ground.

"WHO THE HELL DID THAT?!" Tony burst out loud, turning around and checking all around him.

It was incredibly hard to see in the rain, but Tony was sure that there was nobody around him.

"Tony, what just happened?" a voice over the radio said.

"I've been hit," Tony replied. "Victimized by a sniper shooting, to be exact."

"Then get down here. You can't stay up in the sky that long."

Tony obeyed, and began dropping down towards the city headfirst.

Suddenly, a figured popped up in front of him out of nowhere. It was man.

One of the cloaked men, in fact.

"YOU!" Tony yelled, lowering his laser rifle down towards the man and taking aim.

"Don't bother," the figure said. He had a very young, boyish voice. "My new teleportation abilities can get me out of that jam before you even pull the trigger."

"And who would you be?" Tony asked.

"Hmm…I'll need to come up with an alias right here on the spot, so I apologize if isn't good," the stranger said. "Let's see…how about the Renegade Phantom?"

"Is this some kind of joke to you?!" Tony demanded.

"No," the stranger smirked. "But dealing that damage to your jets was. How many billions will it take to repair that?"

Tony growled angrily.

"It's not important," the stranger continued. "What matters is that I just couldn't let you go after those guys."

"And why is that?"

"Let's just say that they have certain information you'd be better off not knowing."

Unable to suppress his anger, Tony fired a laser bullet at the cloaked stranger, but it did no good. The man disappeared before the laser got anywhere near him.

"Damn…" Tony muttered out of frustration.

"Nice try, Mr. Stark," the man's voice said behind Tony. "I'd advise you to watch your back from now on." He laughed wickedly.

Tony turned around to face the man, but as soon as he did, the laugh faded away, and Tony saw that there was nobody there.

* * *

Nick Fury walked into the Fisk Tower to find numerous amounts of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents already in there. A large amount of them were surrounding a sleeping man in a purple cloak, with their guns aimed.

"Who is this clown?" Fury openly asked, walking towards the crowd of men surrounding the man.

"That's their leader," Hawkeye said, walking up beside Fury. "He was the only one left here, and the three kidnapped young men have received transportation back to the Triskelion, where they'll be taken to their respective homes. They were the ones who identified this man, named Cyrek, as the leader of the organization that was running the show. They also gave us names of a few others involved: Erasmus, Elektra Nachios, the Punisher…"

"And where are all of our guys?" Fury inquired.

"Well, let's see," Hawkeye accounted. "Cap, Colossus, Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine are all outside giving their statements. Tony's just landed not too far from here and he's currently being removed from his suit, which got damaged. And Thor, with a heavy amount of security, has been rushed to the nearest emergency center after getting his ass handed to him by Cyclops and Iron Man."

Fury nodded. "Any idea how this guy, who is supposedly in charge, managed to remain as the only one who didn't escape?"

Hawkeye chuckled proudly. "You can thank me for that. I took him out."

"Oh, really?" Fury said, turning to look at Hawkeye face-to-face.

"Indeed," Hawkeye replied, with a grin. "It's like I told you yesterday in your office, Nick. If you need something done, I can do it. I'm your man."

Fury stared at Hawkeye with a gaze of curiosity. "You're going to ask me for a raise now, aren't you?"

The two men began laughing.

Even with the fact that they had just had one of the most traumatic past two days of their life, with their enemy still out there, they laughed, knowing at least some of their stress was relieved.

* * *

Aboard the private jet he had bought that day, the Kingpin received many calls concerning his tower in Manhattan.

"Mr. Fisk! The tower! Something has happened! S.H.I.E.L.D. is all over the place and-" was what most of the phone calls consisted of before he hung up.

After all, why should he be bothered on his vacation?

Just then that moment, he received another phone call. The caller ID displayed a number he remotely recognized. Maybe this would be a worthy call.

He answered it.

"Hello?"

It turned out to be Elektra.

"Mr. Fisk, where are you? I captured the young mutant Drake, but in the meantime, I found out the identities of the other two others! Sir, I've discovered a piece of information you have to know! Peter Parker is-"

The Kingpin hung up the phone.

He had no time for this garbage.

* * *

The S.H.I.E.L.D. van let Peter off at a corner while nobody else was on the street.

"Good luck, kid," the driver told him as Peter got out.

"Thanks," Peter replied, and then the van drove off.

Peter walked through the familiar streets of his neighborhood.

"Oh God, what a day…" he whispered. Peter was more tired than he had ever been before. He could wait to just get home and collapse into his bed.

Assuming, of course, that Aunt May had bought his sleepover story and she wouldn't greet him with an hour-long lecture about coming home on time.

As Peter approached his house, he noticed that Mary Jane happened to be outside in front of her own home. She noticed Peter, and began running towards him.

They two of them collided and gave each other a tight hug.

"Oh, Peter-" Mary Jane said. "I was so worried about you.

"I'm sorry," Peter apologized. "None of it was my fault. It was just – it was so crazy."

"What happened?" she asked, still clutching him tightly. "I saw you on the news, and-"

"I'll tell you later," Peter interrupted. "Just hold me right now. I feel like I won't be able to walk on my own for the next week. I'm so tired, Mary…"

And for what Peter hoped would last an eternity, he held his girlfriend; he was glad to once again be surrounded by people he loved.

* * *

Captain America walked into Fury's office, where he found Nick and Hawkeye sitting at the desk, staring at a computer screen, talking.

After the day's tiring events, it turned out to be a pretty relaxed evening at the Triskelion. Bruce Banner was safely back in his containment cell, and all S.H.I.E.L.D. employees, as well as the Ultimates, did nothing put patiently wait for new information to pour in from the scene of the battle.

"Gentlemen," he addressed, and they both looked up. "I have certain interesting news…"

"What is it, Steve?" Fury asked.

"They've just finished the search of the building," Cap replied.

"And what did they find?" Hawkeye asked.

"Nothing," Captain America answered. "Nothing at all. The only evidence that the organization was even there was the chamber."

Fury's eyes grew an expression of deep concern. "Then it has to be. If there was no computer equipment to create the hypnotic transmissions in those phone calls, then it all has to be-"

"Magic," Hawkeye said with astonishment. "It matches Tony's story, doesn't it? That somebody just appeared out of nowhere and fried all of the energy in Iron Man's jet boosters?"

"Unbelievable," disagreed Cap. "Magic…there's just no such thing."

Nick responded with, "Come on Steve, you've seen giant green monsters, aliens, and mutants running around with all sorts of abilities, and yet you refuse to believe in the smallest bit of the paranormal?"

"That's my opinion," Cap said, turning to walk out of the office. "I don't care if those boys claim that the organization prophesized the events that occurred. And I don't care if Charles Xavier was unable to read the mind of Cyrek, who hasn't said a word ever since we captured him. I say it's all just an elaborate scheme." He walked out of the office, and the door shut behind him.

Hawkeye and Fury looked at each other.

"Go easy on him," Hawkeye said to Fury. "He's from the dark ages. Any magic to him is considered witchcraft."

"But that's the thing, Clint," Fury said, not taking the statement as a joke. "These still are the dark ages. We have no idea about the true nature of magic, and if it's going to start popping up all of a sudden, we have no way of being prepared."

"Well…" Hawkeye began, with a tone of promise in his voice. "Actually, there is one way we can learn a bit more about this."

"How?" Fury asked impatiently.

"I've heard about this one guy," Hawkeye said. "Supposedly, he's down with all this sorcery stuff. His name's Stephen Strange. You should look him up."

* * *

Upon the X-Men's return to the mansion, Bobby and Geldoff both faced the students with different attitudes.

Geldoff, like he was known to do, remained alone, only bothering to talk the small amount of friend's he had at the school.

Bobby, however, didn't hesitate to use the attention on him to his benefit. He particularly enjoyed telling his perspective of events to many of the female students in mansion.

"It was a quite a struggle for Elektra to get me," Bobby would say. "First, I used my power to knock the gun out of her hand. I did this weird spinning kick thing and kicked her face into the wall. She got really pissed, and picked up the gun, and began shooting me like crazy. I dodged a couple of the bullets at first, but when one of them finally hit me, I kept my cool for a whole minute, fighting back, until the bullet's effects finally caught on…"

He repeated this story as many times as he could to anyone willing to listen.

"Show-off," members of the X-Men, including Kitty and Rogue, would cough as they passed by Bobby.

However, the most meaning re-counting of the events that Bobby told was a private conversation he had with Professor Xavier as soon as he got back.

It occurred in Xavier's office, where Bobby told the professor in full detail what had actually happened.

"Interesting…" Xavier said. "I must say, Bobby, I'm impressed by your courage in this situation, and I'm glad for you and myself that it's all finally over."

"Yeah…" Bobby said, relieved.

"Well, I must think about this for a while," the professor said. "I might find connections and clues later on that might clear up more of this. Is there anything else you wish to tell me?"

"No, I think that-" Bobby began saying, standing up from the chair, but then he stopped. "Actually…" He slid back into the chair. "There is just one more thing."

"Yes?" the professor asked, interested.

"Well…" Bobby began. "The morning that the Hulk was here at the school, I woke up from a very odd dream…"

"Go on," the professor said.

"In this dream," Bobby continued. "I felt really…powerful. It was almost as if my powers had just received this huge boost, and I had transformed into a stronger version of myself, in which I could do things I've never done before."

"I see. And what did you do in this dream?"

"Well…I was running. I wasn't sure what I was running from, but I was using my ice to get around the roofs and buildings of the city, trying to get away from something. After what seemed like forever, something hit me on my back I fell onto one of the rooftops."

"Did you see what hit you?"

"I'm not sure which one of them it was, but a bunch of guys suddenly floated around me and landed on the roof, surrounding me." Bobby then stopped speaking, and looked down towards the floor.

The professor asked, "Bobby, were these people-"

"Yes," Bobby said quickly, in a worried tone. "They were the purple-cloaked men. I saw them in my dream before I ever even met them in real life."

Professor Xavier sat back in his chair, remaining silent.

"Professor…" Bobby began asking, with a look of fear in his eyes. "What do you think this meant?"

* * *

Nick Fury personally escorted Cyrek towards his containment cell in the Triskelion, along with two guards that followed them.

Fury had been very concerned by the way Cyrek had not said a single word ever since he was taken into custody. He could have sworn he had once heard the man mumble "…they'll come for me…" but he decided that it was just his imagination.

"Well, here you go," Fury said, pointing towards the small room surrounded by super-hard glass walls. "I hope you find your new accommodations comforting."

Cyrek, as expected, said nothing.

"Alright then," Fury sighed. "If there's nothing else you'll be needing…"

After a cold silence from Cyrek, Fury gave up and started walking down the hallway and leaving.

"Do I get a phone call?" Fury heard Cyrek say loudly.

He turned around to face Cyrek in disbelief.

"After everything you've done using a phone, do you really want one?" Fury asked him.

Cyrek didn't say anything, but he did nod.

Fury gave Cyrek a cold expression and shook his head. "Not even to your mother."

And with that, Fury continued down the hallway and left the prisoner.

* * *

"…And so, Elektra, as I've said, you will forget anything and everything involved the Trinity and the events that occurred surrounding it."

Erasmus ended the phone conversation.

It had been a few weeks since the battle at the Fisk Tower, and he was now sitting comfortably in his working office at the organization's new base of operations.

Their new employer had been very generous with the funding towards their project, and had given them plenty of room to carry out their work, as well as more-than-decent places to live.

At first, the organization was shocked and full of disbelief that Cyrek had chosen Erasmus to be the new Leader, but gradually, they decided that it was indeed a logical choice, and that Erasmus would most likely do a good job in his new position.

It had been a good position to fill, Erasmus thought. Everybody had begun bowing down to him and treating him with unbelievable respect.

Erasmus looked at his computer screen, and the program Cyrek had once used to translate the manuscript.

"Cyrek, you lying bastard…" Erasmus had said to himself when he had first logged into Cyrek's files and learned to translate the prophecy himself.

Erasmus had learned that Cyrek had kept many things from the organization, and had also given an incorrect translation of the prophecy to the organization.

The way Cyrek had told it, it had to be the one that was most worthy of claiming the prophecy that would gain the Trinity powers. The members naturally assumed that it would be extremely appropriate, if not required, that the person who would be gaining powers was Cyrek himself, who was the Leader, after all.

But no, it turns out, that anybody who steps into the center slot was automatically able to gain the powers, no matter who they were.

He could have given me the powers, Erasmus thought when he first found out. He could have given anyone the powers, but he selfishly chose himself.

That wasn't the only thing Cyrek had kept from the organization. He had basically lied about the whole foundation of what the Trinity was.

Erasmus found that the Trinity wasn't just three people that served as the keys to great power, as Cyrek had told them.

Erasmus himself couldn't believe it when he first read what the prophecy had actually said about the Trinity:

"The Trinity consists of three great warriors, whom the Prophet will reveal when they are still in their young ages. The three will already be blessed with incredible power, but the day will come when they will all together emerge as even stronger than before, with the power to do things that their normal potential never held. Their transformations will lead them to be among the strongest fighters in existence, and all others will look upon them as gods."

"Well, well, well," Erasmus chucked when he first read this. "Looks like things haven't even begun to get interesting around here yet."

**FIN.**


End file.
